


For Freedom

by Ditto_22



Series: All Stars Burn as One [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Has Issues, Canon Divergence - Order 66, Don't Mess With Commander Cody, Found Family, Gen, Jedi Order Respected, Mind Control, Protective clones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25432645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ditto_22/pseuds/Ditto_22
Summary: Cody is a good soldier and a respected Commander. He served the Republic well and is loyal to his General. However, after Kisar was punished for developing attachments to her men by being reassigned to remain permanently in the Jedi Temple, Cody begins to question his loyalties and wonders if what Kaddak said to him is true. As he gets plagued with nightmares of him killing Jedi, Cody starts to discover the true reason for the creation of the clones and unravels a dark conspiracy deep within the Republic.Cody is a good soldier, but will he follow every order?
Relationships: 212th Attack Battalion & CC-2224 | Cody, CC-2224 | Cody & CC-5576-39 | Gregor, CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody & Ghost Company, CC-2224 | Cody/Original Female Character(s), CT-2224 | Cody & Original Character(s)
Series: All Stars Burn as One [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1707715
Comments: 12
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

19 Years Before the Battle of Yavin and 981 Years After the Ruusan Reformation

Cody was smarter than almost all of his brothers. It was why he became a CC, a clone officer separated from the rest of the soldiers for more specialized and intense training. He wasn’t the type to believe outrageous conspiracy theories. Especially theories that came from a notoriously unstable rogue clone named Kaddak. He was trained to be better than that.

Yet…..what Kaddak said alarmingly made sense.

The Marshal Commander abruptly stood up from his desk and slammed his hands on the table’s surface in order to disrupt his wayward thoughts. “Get ahold of yourself, Cody. Those kinds of thoughts get you reprocessed and you know it.”

The veteran clone officer rubbed his eyes with a sigh and began to robotically place the datapads he was doing a poor job of reading back into his desk’s drawers. He had been off ever since the day Kisar had returned to Coruscant. Not long after she came back and visited the 212th did Cody hear the news that she was in fact being reassigned to the Jedi Temple. 

Everything was just so quiet without the kid around. 

As he looked down at the cleared desk before him, Cody knew he had to find a way to distract himself and cheer himself up. He was losing his grip on things, and as a Commander, he couldn’t afford continuing to do so. 

A thought popped in his head and he tiredly chuckled while following through with the random idea. Cody quickly contacted his closest brother, Captain Rex of the 501st, and waited for him to answer. 

The gruff voice of the clone Captain responded in an obviously annoyed tone, “Yeah?”

“What crawled up your ass and died, Rex ol’boy?” Cody smirked, already feeling better upon hearing his brother’s voice.

“Oh, do me a favor and _kriff off_ , Cody. You know exactly what happened to put me in this mood.” Rex responded bitingly. The difference in rank between the two brothers hardly mattered in moments like this. Cody might have been one of the highest ranked clones there was, but Rex had known him since he was a cadet and didn’t give a kark about being his brother’s subordinate when no one else was around to witness the banter between the two men. 

The Commander winced at the other’s reminder of what had recently transpired. Ahsoka Tano, beloved and respected Padawan Commander of General Skywalker, was put on trial for crimes she did not commit and seemingly abandoned by the Jedi Council. Even though the young Togruta was eventually proved to be innocent by her Master, the feelings of betrayal towards both the Republic and the Jedi Council did not leave the former Padawan and she permanently left the Jedi Order. Rex and the rest of the 501st were hit hard by the departure of their Jedi, not unlike how Cody and the 212th reacted to Kisar going AWOL in order to kill Spar herself and protect her men months ago. The issue was, Cody sincerely doubted that Ahsoka would ever choose to come back like Kisar did.

“Hey, I’m sorry, brother. How about we both find a way to let off steam tonight, aye?” Cody offered tentatively as he waited for his old friend’s response. 

There was only silence for a few moments before the Commander heard a quiet sigh from the Captain on the other end, “Alright, brother. What are we doing?”

“How about going to 79’s? It’s been a while since we’ve been there.”

Rex barked out a laugh, “79’s?! Clones with our ranks rarely step foot in there and for a good reason, Cody. Those boys are trying to unwind, and they can’t do that with their superior officers hanging around. Especially officers as well-known and recognizable as us.”

The Marshal Commander rolled his eyes, “Well, there’s not exactly any other bars we’re allowed in, Rex.”

“Then let’s go to some bars we’re not allowed in.” 

***

Cody pulled at his borrowed clothing with disgust. He had never felt so exposed and vulnerable while fully dressed in his short life, even his black undersuit offered more protection than the civilian clothing he borrowed from a visibly smug Savvy. The Commando was the only clone he knew personally that would have civilian clothing on hand and wouldn’t spread the word that Commander Cody was going out on a night on the town. Well, he would probably tell the rest of Foxtrot but Cody knew they would only tease him in private and respected him enough to not tell anyone else. 

Cody picked the most modest and least showy clothing from Savvy’s collection but was still far too ostentatiously dressed for his tastes. The silverish gold shirt he wore felt two sizes too small and highlighted every muscle and contour of his torso and arms. The black pants were also tight enough to see the muscles of his legs. The only items that were familiar to the poor clone were some standard black boots that were similar to the ones he wore everyday in his armor. If anyone else but Rex saw him like this, Cody would never recover from the humiliation. 

The Commander’s own embarrassment quickly deteriorated at the sight of his closest brother in even more revealing clothing. Rex also had tight black pants but his own gray shirt was far more provocative in that it was sleeveless and threatened to flash the uncomfortable looking blond Captain’s chest.

Cody bit his lip hard to contain his laughter, “Let me guess….a gift from Fives?”

Rex narrowed his eyes dangerously and curled his lips up in a snarl, “It’s not like Savvy gave you anything better.”

The scarred clone shrugged in response before tossing over a simple black jacket to his brother and putting on his own black jacket. They were something he had picked up from the mission to Nar Shaddaa all those years ago. The mission he met Kisar on.

He and Rex were slightly more covered now and looked more like smugglers than male prostitutes. The two clones eyed each other up and down for a moment to make sure they looked good enough to go out before sneaking out of the barracks together. 

Commander Cody and Captain Rex felt like mischievous shinies again as they snuck further down into the underworld of Coruscant to find some clubs and bars that the Republic banned them from entering.

They both ended up in a seedy bar called Zeltron’s Delight and used the credits Cody had confiscated from Kisar from whenever she was caught gambling. It was enough to buy the large amount of alcohol necessary to even get enhanced human men like Rex and Cody drunk. 

The two veterans proceeded to knock back shot after shot of various drinks as they did their best to forget the horrors they’ve seen and the brothers they’ve lost. 

Cody barely registered the partying people around him as his mind finally entered a blissful haze of near thoughtlessness. The stress and worries of years of war temporarily vanished as he closed his eyes to fully enjoy the sensation of intoxication. The Marshal Commander sighed in relief and lifted up another glass to his lips to down another shot. 

He was broken out of his stupor when a small hand grabbed his shoulder and abruptly turned him around to meet the worried face of Keeja Virtus, the Corellian baker who Cody was attracted to.

Keeja was shaking him slightly and saying something but the bar’s loud music drowned out her words. Cody found himself fixated on her pretty plump lips as they moved. She was so beautiful and sexy even when she was frowning.

His nice view was disrupted by her dragging him out of the bar with a woozy Rex being dragged with her other hand. Cody growled in frustration before settling his gaze on the sway of her hips as she marched the two normally dangerous clones out of the crowded bar and onto the chaotically busy streets of Coruscant. 

It was still noisy but Keeja was able to audibly speak to Cody and Rex as they dazedly stared down at the short Corellian. “Come on, boys. Aid told me you should be fine as long as you get some rest back at my place.”

The grip on their arms transferred over to their hands as she began to carefully lead the much larger men into a cab. Rex suddenly grinned loopily and made a sound disturbingly close to a giggle as he glanced down at her hold on his hand, “Look, Cody! Keeja’s my girlfriend now too!”

The baker turned crimson as she stuttered, “N-no! I’m just trying to make sure you two don’t wander off!”

“She’s not _your_ girlfriend, moron!”Cody for once didn’t ignore her obvious blush as he pressed his nose into the thick golden hair on top of her head and inhaled deeply with a pleased sigh. She smelled nice even in the dirty cab they were in. 

Keeja made a strange high pitched sound in response between the two as she stammered out a question to the cab driver to ask him when they would arrive at her shop. The humanoid said something to answer her question but Cody didn’t care enough to listen. He was too busy wrapping his arms around her squirming form and placing her on top of his lap. 

He felt her struggle against his hold a bit in protest before he heard her sigh in resignation and lay still for the rest of the ride back to her shop and home. To the drunken Cody’s delight, there was plenty of time for him to enjoy the sensation of her soft body against his own due to the heavy traffic and long distance. 

The cab sadly stopped eventually and Keeja all but jumped off his lap and did her best to collect herself even though the intense blush on her face and neck refused to go away as she went back to dragging Rex and Cody’s wobbly forms into her bakery and upstairs into her apartment.

She struggled to get them to sit down so she could take off their boots as Cody had started to playfully start swinging at his younger brother. Rex didn’t hesitate to do the same and the Corellian baker could only watch in exasperation from the sidelines as they began to grapple each other as well. 

After their energy reserves ran out and they all but collapsed onto her couch together in a heap, she finally was able to take off their jackets and boots and threw a blanket over their tired forms. 

The last thing Cody heard before he passed out was Keeja’s soft voice awkwardly wishing them a goodnight.

***

_Good soldiers follow orders._

_Cody glared at the Wookie rebels with pure hatred behind his helmet as he raised his blaster to shoot them dead. General Kahdah said they betrayed the Republic and were revolting. He felt sadistic glee rise up in his body every time he killed one of the traitors. He had killed more than his other brothers in the 212th already and was proud of the skills that he offered to the glorious Empire._

_His elation was erased when he heard a familiar sound. Someone was using a lightsaber near them. A Jedi survivor was near them._

_His eyes landed on the form of a Duros Jedi as she desperately tried to defend the Wookies and prevent their deaths. His lips curled up into a cruel smirk as he watched her face fall with horror when more and more of the traitors were killed by the overwhelming amount of blaster fire he and his men were shooting at them._

_He charged the Jedi scum with a roar and expertly dodged her lightsaber attacks as he unsheathed a knife from his armor and sliced into the arm that held the lightsaber._

_Green blood splattered on him and onto the ground as the traitor screamed in pain and held her arm weakly against her trembling body. His eyes narrowed when he spotted the artificial Padawan braid placed on her bald blue head. She was only an apprentice then. That explained why it was so easy for him to defeat her. She was too young and inexperienced to be a threat to him._

_It didn’t matter though. Even the Jedi children were a danger to the Empire and needed to be killed on sight because of their betrayal._

_He swiftly stuck his knife into the Padawan’s heart as he watched her red eyes fade to signal her death. He dropped the limp form onto the ground and watched his brothers kill off the rest of the traitors and smiled. He and his brothers were good soldiers for the Empire._

_Good soldiers follow orders._

***

Cody awoke with a sharp gasp and realized he was thrashing around on the floor. He forced his body to stop and confusedly glanced around the room. He was in Keeja’s apartment on her floor and had just woken up from a disturbingly vivid nightmare and for some reason, Rex was on the couch above him staring at him in horror. 

His brother looked gravely concerned as he reached down gently to help Cody up. “You okay, brother? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clone have a nightmare like that.”

“I...I-I don't know what happened, Rex.” Cody whispered with panicked eyes as he tried to process the nightmare he just had. “Everything felt so real but…..but it didn’t make any sense.”

The Captain opened his mouth to respond but was halted by the arrival of Keeja as she walked into the living room with a tray full of delicious breakfast food. She had a bright smile on her face until her eyes landed on Cody’s disheveled form on the floor. She froze and her eyes roamed up and down his body before she let out a shriek and swivelled away to avert her eyes. The food wobbled and threatened to fall off of the tray before settling as the baker hurriedly apologized for walking in without knocking first. 

Captain and Commander raised their eyebrows in unison as they glanced at each other in confusion. After a moment, Rex’s eyes brightened in recognition and a slow smirk grew on his face as he coughed into his hand and pointedly looked down at Cody’s torso. The Marshal Commander furrowed his eyebrows at his brother before looking down at his torso himself and horrifyingly realizing that he was shirtless. He quickly grabbed a nearby blanket and covered his naked upper half in embarrassment. 

“Uhhh….sorry, Keeja.”

The woman nodded shakily as she tentatively turned around and placed the tray on the couch next to Rex before scurrying back to her position in the living room entrance. “I-It’s okay. I mean you don’t have to say sorry or anything. It’s uh…. _very_ impressive.”

Cody blushed under his tan skin as Rex snickered above him at her response. 

Keeja seemed to register what she said as she gasped, “No! I mean it’s impressive that you managed to unconsciously take off your shirt during the night. Not that your body’s not impressive though!”

Rex was grinning from ear to ear. “Keeja?”

“Yeah?”

“I think something’s burning in the kitchen. Maybe you should go save it?”

The Corellian woman accepted his obvious lifeline with a breathy thanks before practically running back to her kitchen. 

The two clones watched her leave with amusement. Cody felt his own grin settle on his face even though he was still embarrassed to be seen half-naked by his “crush” as the kid called her. 

“How do you think she found us at that bar?” Cody wondered aloud after a few minutes of silence between the two as they ate the delicious home cooked food for breakfast.

“I think I remember her mentioning Aid while she was dragging us out.” Rex hummed.

“You think Aid found out about our night and sent her to retrieve us? How would he even know where we were?”

“I’m guessing Savvy put something in your clothing to keep track of you. You know how Commandos are, Cody. Savvy told his squad and Foxtrot responded by informing Keeja of our whereabouts.”

Cody grunted, “I guess I appreciate the help then. I have never been completely drunk before in my life until yesterday. I don't think either of us could’ve made it back to the barracks in our condition. We should thank her.”

His brother nodded before chuckling lowly, “I remember you thanked her quite thoroughly in that cab last night.”

Cody narrowed his eyes and glared even as he blushed, “What I did was highly inappropriate but not nearly as inappropriate as you are insinuating. I just held her, Rex.”

“Sure, sure, brother. Whatever you say.” 

“Let’s just get ready to leave.” Cody rolled his eyes at his brother’s teasing. 

They proceeded to get dressed in order to be ready to sneak back into their quarters without any other clones seeing them hopefully. It would be a lot harder to do so in broad daylight unfortunately. 

Keeja had helped them clean up the dishes before walking with them to the street right outside her shop. 

“Sorry again for walking in without knocking, Cody.” She rubbed the back of her neck with embarrassment. 

Cody tried to smile reassuringly, “It’s okay. There was no harm done.”

“If you still feel bad, Keeja, how about next time you let Cody see you topless so you two can be even again?” Rex interjected with a smirk as he threw an arm around his glaring brother’s shoulders and led him away from the now brightly blushing woman.

Anyone who saw the two would think they were ordinary brothers with the clothing they wore. Many young men on Coruscant dressed the same and acted the same around each other. For a moment, Cody and Rex were ordinary men, not clones and not even soldiers. 

They walked in silence and gradually felt the tension of the war enter their bodies again as they drew closer to the barracks. They were no longer two brothers having a good time. They were two highly respected and even feared clone officers loyal to the Republic. 

Before they parted ways to enter each other’s respective section of the barracks, Rex leaned in close to his brother and gravely whispered, “What was the nightmare about brother?”

Cody sighed as he tried to interpret what he saw in the nightmare, “I don’t know, brother.”

He looked directly into Rex’s eyes as the terrible visions of his dream came back to him. He was serving some sort of Empire and killing Wookies. He had killed a _Padawan_. 

“I don’t know.”

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Kisar was bored and frustrated. Which was never good.

According to Cody, whenever she felt that combination of feelings, she would proceed to do something incredibly stupid. Whenever he saw her acting visibly bored, the clone Commander would commence occupying her by assigning her some task to complete. Unfortunately, for the inhabitants of the Jedi Temple, Cody was not there to stop Kisar from doing something she shouldn’t.

She had the Jedi Council to thank for that. 

Kisar was reassigned to the Jedi Temple and was essentially prevented from spending any time with the 212th anymore. Her rank in the GAR as a Commander was also taken away. She was only Padawan Kisar now. 

_“Young Kisar, we are troubled to discover you have developed an extremely strong attachment to the clone troopers you serve with.” Master Plo Koon gravely announced in greeting as a nervous Kisar walked into the Jedi Council chambers. “While I would be the first to admit that I too have a soft spot for my own men, that soft spot has never crossed the line into attachment. As Jedi, we must be careful to abstain from attachment as you know.”_

_“Masters, I am a Cathar. We are a communal people who thrive on attachment and family connections. We have also made great Jedi and only have rarely strayed to the Dark Side of the Force even with our tendencies to form attachments. You must understand that I am still loyal to the Jedi Order.” Kisar tried to defend herself but she knew by the looks in the eyes of the Jedi Council, her words fell on deaf ears. Whatever decision they had made in response to her actions was final._

_“You abandoned the Republic and the Jedi Order to wage war on the Mandalorians. We are stripping you of your rank as a military Commander and stationing you inside the Jedi Temple until this war is over.” Master Mace Windu coldly informed her as she gaped at the assembled Jedi Masters in shock. There was something wrong with the Jedi Master who had found her as a baby. Kisar knew he wasn’t the nicest Jedi around at times but he never was harsh with her. Somehow she had managed to offend Master Windu to the point of no return._

_The room felt disturbed and sick when she left in a daze. The entire temple seemed to be filled with a shadowy fog that blinded the eyes of its inhabitants and clouded their minds and judgement. The heart of the Jedi Order felt dark._

Kisar’s Master, Obi-wan Kenobi, had even gone so far as to disconnect himself from her. Kisar became another Masterless Padawan stuck in the Jedi Temple as the war raged on. 

She hadn’t felt so alone since she was stranded in Hutt Space after Spar’s first attack on her and her clan when she was eight.

There were few things a Padawan could do without an assigned Master in the Jedi Temple. One of those things was to constantly fill her time with training on the sparring mats. Kisar had returned to the old habits of her Initiate days as she spent almost every waking hour vigorously training and dedicating herself to becoming the best she could be and then some.

The Padawans and Initiates at the Jedi Temple soon learned to give Kisar a wide berth whenever she trained. She never spoke to anyone when she was practicing and didn’t socialize much whenever she wasn’t training either. The famous Mandalore-slaying Padawan was quickly becoming infamous for her reclusiveness. 

Before Ahsoka left the Order, she did her best to spend time with Kisar and even introduced some Jedi younglings to her in order to make sure her Cathar friend wouldn’t completely isolate herself. The top members of Boma Clan that Ahsoka had fought Hondo and even the feared General Grievous with, impressed Kisar greatly but she still had trouble connecting with them. Zatt, Gungi, Petro, Ganodi, Byph, and Katooni might have no longer been shinies, but they were far from the level of experienced that Ahsoka or Kisar were. 

Nonetheless, those Initiates were persistent in approaching Kisar and talking to her. She surmised it was at least partially due to their hero-worship of her. Padawan Kisar was someone most Initiates wanted to meet and spar with after all. No other younglings had Ahsoka, another legendary Padawan, introduce them to her and Kisar guessed they were taking advantage of that connection. 

Which was why, Kisar was doing her best to walk to the Room of a Thousand Fountains to find some long-awaited peace and quiet. Hopefully, any starstruck younglings or Padawans wouldn’t think to look for her there. 

“Hey, Kisar!”

Kriff.

She turned around slowly to see Ganodi, a Rodian girl, and Katooni, a Tholothian girl, approaching her in a fast-paced, excited walk. Kisar forced a smile upon her unwilling face. “Hey, guys!”

Katooni reached her first and smiled brightly, blissfully unaware of Kisar’s discomfort. “We see that you’re heading to the fountains, can we join you as you meditate?” 

Kisar never really considered herself to be a particularly nice person who could make friends easily. Even as an Initiate, she preferred training over spending time with her clanmates. Ahsoka Tano, even after leaving Kisar and the Jedi Order, still managed to find a way to play one last prank on her friend by encouraging some overly convivial Initiates to spend time with her it seemed. 

Despite not being the friendliest Padawan around, Kisar couldn’t find it within herself to deny Katooni’s genuine request, “Sure. What could go wrong?”

***

Surprisingly, Ganodi and Katooni made good meditation buddies for Kisar. They immediately stopped talking once they sat down in the Room of a Thousand Fountains and went into a meditation next to a shocked Kisar. 

The Cathar Padawan struggled to do the same as she closed her eyes and focused her breathing. Every time she was on the verge of entering a deep meditation, memories and nightmares of battles past haunted her and disrupted her thoughts. The apparent traumatic battle of the day to mentally relive was Ryloth as Kisar strained to suppress the images and clear her mind. 

After a few tries, the Cathar Padawan gave up with a gasp and leaned her head against a nearby tree within the peaceful haven of the Jedi Temple. Even in a place meant to ease worries and minds, Kisar couldn’t find inner peace. She groaned and thumped her head a little too hard against the trunk of the tree. 

The impact must have been loud enough to pull the two Initiates beside her from their meditation as they opened their eyes and looked at her with confusion and concern. 

Ganodi was the first to speak, “Kisar…..are you okay?”

The Cathar girl sighed as she rubbed at her eyes, “Yeah. You two can go back to meditating.”

Thankfully, before either determined Initiate could interrogate Kisar any further, another member of their clan burst into the room and rushed over to his clanmates while gasping for breath. 

Kisar raised her eyebrows slowly as she watched the Ithorian youngling known as Byph wave his arms around and speak in lightning fast Ithorese to Ganodi and Katooni. He seemed to be worried about something, but Kisar didn’t understand enough Ithorese to find out what without someone translating his words.

Thankfully, Ganodi seemed up for the task as she turned back to Kisar with a noticeably stressed look on her face. “Byph says Petro got himself into some real trouble and is gonna get badly hurt!”

Katooni was already up and her feet and grabbed Kisar’s shoulders and urgently pleaded, “Can you help us save him?”

“Wait, what? Save him from what exactly?” 

All three female Jedi turned back to Byph who let out a few distressed clicks and waved his arms a few times and pointed at the exit. 

Katooni gasped and actually started to drag a shocked Kisar out of the Room of a Thousand Fountains. “He said Petro is going up against clone assassins!”

***

Petro was someone Kisar liked the least out of the Boma Clan. He reminded her a little too much of her friend, Anakin Skywalker, except he didn’t have the skills and power to back up his cockiness and recklessness yet.

However, Kisar wasn’t going to let him be seriously beat up by some clone assassins because she didn’t like the younger Jedi. Those clones were specially trained in Teräs Käsi, unarmed combat created to take down Jedi, and were known to deliberately spar against young and inexperienced Jedi Initiates and Padawans to hone their skills. 

Kisar had seen Petro spar before and knew he had talent, but he had nowhere near the talent needed to face off against clone assassins. 

Petro was going to get creamed.

They finally made it to the training grounds and spotted the foolishly overconfident Human Initiate igniting his lightsaber and making bold statements of how he’s going to defeat the visibly smug assassins. 

A nervous looking Gungi and Zatt were beside him and were obviously trying to get their friend to back down and walk away from the assassins, but Petro refused to do so.

Kisar wasn’t going to be as nice as Gungi and Zatt were, “Petro! Deactivate your lightsaber and walk away. Now!”

The boy gaped at her sharp tone before frowning and pointing at the assassins with an accusatory finger. “They said the Jedi were weak!”

Kisar bared her teeth in a snarl as she got toe to toe with him. Her slight height advantage gave her the opportunity to glare down at him as she hissed lowly, “And you think you’re the best Jedi around to prove them wrong?”

Petro opened his mouth but apparently was rendered speechless by her question. Kisar nodded in approval before rotating and facing the squad of clone assassins. “Fun’s over, boys. Go back to your barracks.”

One of them, probably the leader, chuckled condescendingly as he shook his head no. “I don’t think so. You don’t have the rank needed to order us around anymore last I heard.”

Kisar narrowed her eyes and stepped forward. “I don’t need a rank to let you know there’s not going to be any sparring for you today.”

“We came here for a fight, _Padawan_ Kisar, and we’ll get one. It’s either you or the scrawny boy, choose.”

Petro sputtered behind her in offense but she largely ignored him as she scoffed, “You’re getting neither. We’re going back inside the Temple and you’re going back to your barracks. End of story.”

Without looking back, she began to usher the shocked Boma Clan back into the Jedi Temple’s safe halls. They were almost to safety until Kisar’s movement was stopped by the assassin leader’s mocking words, “And here I thought you were supposed to be one of the actual tough Jedi.”

“I am and I don’t need to prove it to you. Now kindly kriff off, please.” Kisar growled back as her patience ran out. The frustrations of the past couple of months have built up in her and seemed to finally started to boil over. 

The leader threw his head back and guffawed as he clutched his helmet to his armored chest, “You seem a little grumpier than most Jedi. Been too long since Commander Cody treated you to some nice Fett cock, huh?”

Several of the Initiates around her gasped at his vulgar question as Kisar silently pushed them inside the Temple to protect them from the consequences of what she was about to do. 

“What did you just say?” 

“I said it’s been too long since you’ve gotten the chance to kriff your Commander and that’s why you’re so uptight. Come on, don’t act so shocked, everyone knows you two are _intimately_ close.”

“Leave Cody out of this! He’s not a pedophile.” She hissed as her claws unconsciously drew out of the natural sheathes of her fingers and her tail and ears began to twitch wildly. She knew they were baiting her but she couldn’t let them say such vulgar and horrible things about her and Cody. Cody wasn’t _Merrik_. No one got to insult Cody and accuse him of sleeping with a child. 

“I understand that you want to protect your boyfriend, sweetheart, but it’s not like it’s a secret or an-AGHHH!”

Kisar interrupted him with a powerful Force-push before charging the thoroughly taken off guard assassins with a roar of pure fury. Realistically, if she were to spar these specialized soldiers using fair play, she knew that she wouldn’t have won against the men trained to take down fully fledged Jedi Knights. However, her surprise Force-push did an effective enough job of stunning them that she could pounce on the leader and swipe at him with her clawed hands on instinct. “You never get to talk about Cody that way! YOU HEAR ME!?”

The clone below her choked in pain, “Yes! Yes! I’m sorry!”

His submission dulled her rage somewhat and the Cathar Jedi slowly rose off of his trembling form and glared the rest of the terrified squad into submission as well. “If I hear about any of you going after naive younglings like Petro again instead of experienced Padawans or Knights, I’ll come after you personally in your quarters when you least expect it. Am I understood?”

They nodded rapidly to show they understood before dragging their injured leader away from the still seething Padawan as she watched them round the corner.

A throat cleared behind her and Kisar turned around in confusion before gulping at the sight of an extremely displeased looking Master Cin Drallig.

Kisar almost whimpered at the realization of what she just was caught doing by the Jedi Battlemaster. 

“ _Poodoo_.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cody starts digging and the Force continues meddling.

“You’re going to what?” Gregor sputtered while struggling to catch the food tray he just dropped. 

Cody watched his Commando brother fumble for a few moments in amusement before continuing, “I’m going to ask some Kamino connections of mine to look into the reason for our creation.”

“Yeah, but why?” 

“Something doesn’t add up here, Gregor. The Jedi didn’t even know we existed until General Kenobi found us right before the war started.”

Gregor’s eyebrows furrowed as he rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe some Seppies commissioned our creation then?”

It was a hard possibility to consider, but an unavoidably plausible one nonetheless. For all that Cody and just about every other clone hated the Separatists and their droid army, he couldn’t write off the possibility that the clones were created by their enemies just yet. 

“Keep this under wraps, Gregor. The only reason I told you that I’m doing this is cause I know you nosy Commandos would find out about it sooner or later. If I find nothing too concerning, I’ll drop this quickly enough and everything can go back to normal but until then, I’ll need you to cover for me at times when I’ll be busy researching.”

Gregor sighed as he shook his head sadly, “I’ll do what I can, brother, but I doubt we can hide this kind of sleuthing from the higher-ups forever. They already are keeping a close eye on us because of the _unorthodox_ traits we’ve shown.”

Cody nodded slowly. He had predicted that would happen. After he temporarily went AWOL to save Kisar from Aurra Sing and Boba Fett, he expected the nat-borns to start keeping an eye on him even after General Kenobi defended him and claimed to have personally assigned him to accompany the Antarian Rangers. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, brother.”

***

Cody knew asking the Bad Batch to look into things on Kamino was risky. They had already gone out of their way to help him off the books before when he asked them to assist Kisar in killing Spar. He hated to ask anything else of them after their time on Concord Dawn. Yet, if what he was beginning to suspect was true, it was worth the risk. It was worth asking the Bad Batch another time.

He drew out his commlink and called Hunter reluctantly with a mournful sigh. 

After a few tries, the clone Commando Sergeant responded in a teasing tone, “What’s it this time, Cody? Are we going to overthrow the Republic this time just to one-up last time with the Mandos?”

Cody couldn’t help but let out a weary chuckle at the accidental accuracy of Hunter’s mocking question. He sure hoped it wouldn’t go that far. “You’re not too far off there, Hunter.”

“...You serious, Commander?”

“Hopefully, we can avoid anything that serious, but what I’m about to ask you to do may unravel the Republic at the seams.” 

The clone Sergeant was silent for a tense few minutes before finally gruffly giving his answer, “The last time I thought you were crazy when you asked us to chase after your Jedi, Cody, but you know what? This time I don’t think you’re crazy, I know you’re crazy.”

Cody exhaled in resignation, “You don’t have to d-”

“You didn’t let me finish, Commander. I know you’re crazy and that’s why I respect you so much. The Bad Batch is at your service, sir. What do you need us to do?”

***

Cody had been a bit tense with his General ever since Kisar was cut-off from the 212th. He still was completely professional with General Kenobi but the banter and friendly discussions they used to have had all but disappeared. His General had noticed but hadn’t commented on their change of relationship. 

He apparently decided now was the time to start commenting.

“Cody, if you would join me in my office, please.” The Jedi Master softly ordered to his second-in-command with a small nod.

The Marshal Commander blew some air through his nose in a facsimile of a sigh before joining his General to walk to his office. The entire way there was wordless as the two former friends silently pondered over what they were going to say.

Kenobi, per usual, made the first move as he questioned his old friend, “Cody, I fear that a rift has been formed between us.”

“Do tell, sir.” 

High General Obi-wan Kenobi of the 7th Sky Corps looked worn down as he gazed at Cody sorrowfully, “You’re not going to make this easy are you?”

Cody didn’t verbally disagree with his General’s assessment and instead remained in silent defiance. Two years ago, he would have never been able to do such a thing to his commanding officer but Cody was tired after being in the war for so long. He was tired of just doing things because he was told to. He was tired of being a good little obedient clone whenever something wrong happened and what happened to Kisar was definitely wrong.

“Cody-”

“Commander, sir.” He interjected a bit curtly. 

“Pardon?”

“This is an official discussion isn’t it, General?” He set another wedge in between them to make his point. His General took a part in separating Kisar from her men. Cody was without his kid partly due to the man in front of him.

Kenobi recovered well enough. He was called the Negotiator for a reason after all. “Right. _Commander._ What can I do to receive your trust and forgiveness again? I know that you and the men are upset about Kisar’s reassignment and I understand that. How can I regain your trust and respect?”

“There is a way for you to gain my trust again, sir.” Cody offered with raised eyebrows as he leaned back onto the wall behind him and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“What is it, old friend?”

“Tell me you’d do the same to Skywalker since you two are almost as close as Kisar and I are. If you can admit this to my face then I’ll know that you did this to follow your Jedi Code like a good soldier and that there was no bias in this decision.”

As he predicted, General Kenobi looked shocked by his offer and didn’t know how to respond. Cody already knew the answer even if his General tried to deceive him in order to defend himself and the Council. His kid wasn’t the Chosen One like General Skywalker was and therefore the Council had no issue with keeping her in the Temple. More importantly, in Kenobi’s case, Kisar wasn’t the Padawan that he viewed as family and had an attachment to. She hadn’t stood a chance. 

“C-cody, I swear-”

“Commander.”

“Commander, I swear the Council and I followed the rules of the Code in our decision with Kisar.” His General almost sounded as if he were trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince his Commander.

Cody pitied his General and old friend, he truly did, but he wouldn’t forgive him or the rest of the Jedi Council for what they did to his Jedi. He didn’t doubt that the High Generals did adhere to their Code in Kisar’s case but he did doubt their objectivity in dealing with whatever Bantha poodoo General Skywalker committed month after month. 

Cody wasn’t blind to his own kid’s mischievousness and disobedient tendencies, but he himself made sure that she was disciplined whenever she was out of line. He doubted the Jedi Council did that for Skywalker anymore. He had heard and even witnessed the remnants of their more harsh treatment of Skywalker as a Padawan but those days were over. Only General Windu and a few others truly tried to rein Skywalker in anymore after he became the Hero of the Republic. 

“I’m sorry, sir, but my obedience and professionalism will be all you receive for as long as you defend your unfair tolerance of Skywalker’s actions and feelings.” With those parting words, Cody left his General’s office and went to his own quarters.

He was so tired.

***

_Good soldiers follow orders._

_Utapau was a mess._

_Cody was losing brothers left and right but he had to keep pushing. If they won this battle after killing General Grievous, the war was all but finished. He could see Kisar again once the war was finished._

_He watched Parjai Squad not far from him take out a few crab droids on their own and felt a small smirk grace his features. “Good ol’Barlex at it again.”_

_His General rode a giant indigenous beast up right next to Cody, “Commander! Contact your troops. Tell them to move to the higher levels.”_

_“Very good, sir. Oh, and by the way,” He reached into his belt to pull out the lightsaber his General dropped while fighting Grievous. He offered it up to General Kenobi with a nod. “I think you’ll be needing this.”_

_Kenobi thanked him with a slight smile even in the chaos of battle, “Thank you, Cody. Now let’s get a move on. We’ve got a battle to win here.”_

_He shouted “Yes, sir!” to his departing General as the Jedi Master rode the beast up against the sides of the cliff in order to reach the droid forces. Cody shook his head with a dry chuckle, his General was always quite the risk-taker no matter how much he liked to claim Skywalker was much worse._

_His comm beeped to indicate an incoming message. He opened it immediately without thought and was surprised to see the robed and partially hidden form of Supreme Chancellor Palapatine. The elderly Republic leader’s voice sounded sinister as he uttered, “Commander Cody, the time has come. Execute Order 66.”_

_Good soldiers follow orders._

_“Yes, my Lord.”_

_He looked up at his General and felt hatred instead of his previous fondness. He gestured to the gunner behind him and ordered sharply, “Blast him!”_

_The traitor General Kenobi fell to his death as his beast cried out in alarm. Cody watched them land in some water at the bottom and nodded in satisfaction. He would send some troopers down there to search for his General after the battle was finished. Until then, he had some clankers to destroy just as he was bred to do as a good soldier._

_Good soldiers follow orders._

***

Cody gasped as he shot straight up on his modest bed. “No! General!” 

He confusedly looked around and realized he was still in his personal quarters. It was another nightmare then. They all felt so real that he couldn’t tell if what he experienced was real or not until he woke up.

He blindly reached his hands out in the darkness of his room to find his commlink. Once he found it, he sighed and called the man he never thought he would need to reach after Kisar had handed him the contact information for “emergencies.”

A voice identical to his answered, “Who is this?”

“It’s me, Kaddak. It’s Commander Cody.”

A chuckle sounded from the end, “Finally came to your senses then?”

“I’ve been having nightmares that have felt so real that I can’t tell if they are actually happening until I wake up. I just had one right before I called and it was worse than the last one. I keep killing Jedi in my nightmares.” Cody muttered as he rubbed at his eyes and waited for the rogue clone’s response. 

“...Jedi? Are you saying that could be what we’re made for?” Kaddak sounded shocked as he tried to process the Marshal Commander’s words. “Are you sure they’re not just bad dreams?”

“Nightmares don’t show me planets I’ve never been to before or Jedi younglings I’ve never met. I looked up the Jedi youngling that I killed in my first vision and she’s still an Initiate in the Jedi Temple but is about to be assigned to a Jedi Master who primarily works with the Wookies on Kashyyyk. In my dream, I put down a Wookie revolt with the 212th and killed that same youngling.”

“You’re saying it’s possible that these nightmares are visions of our future? I thought that was a Jedi thing!” Kaddak hissed softly.

“If there's anything I've learned from my time serving with the Jedi, it's that the Force makes no sense and does what it wants. There was a mantra that was in every nightmare I've had so far that I think may be connected to why we are going to kill the Jedi and why we were made. It was the phrase, ‘Good soldiers follow orders.’” Cody narrowed his eyes as he began to develop a plan to avoid serving whatever empire he served in his dreams. His eyes widened when he remembered who he saw in his last dream. “And Chancellor Palpatine was the one who ordered me to kill my own General.”

“ _Kriff._ ”

“Couldn’t agree more, brother.”

“How in nine Corellian hells will we be able to take down the Chancellor if what you said is true?” The infamous Commando questioned.

Cody sighed, “First, we have to make sure that what I saw is true and then we’ll worry about how to stop it.”

“How are we going to figure out if it’s true or not?”

He grinned despite their grim situation, “I’ve already got some of my best men looking into that on the inside but I'll need your help to look at this from the outside.”

"Roger that. Anything to help my brothers and keep a certain Jedi of ours safe, Cody." 

The mystery of their existence was going to be revealed no matter what it took. The clones had sacrificed so much for the Republic and deserved to know why. They deserved to gain the rights some politicians had been promising to them after the war ended. The truth needed to be unearthed.

Cody would do it for his brothers. For the kid. For the Republic.

For freedom.


	4. Chapter 4

Assisting Master Jocasta Nu around the library was a fate worse than death for Kisar. The old Master seemed hellbent on making her life miserable by ordering her to do the most tedious of tasks. Or at least it seemed like Master Nu was out to get her with how many times Kisar had to reorder several shelves.

The Jedi Council really outdid themselves this time in terms of punishment. 

All because she went a little overboard on some clone assassins and was caught by Master Drallig in the act. It solidified the beliefs of the Council that she was unstable and unfit for military duty. 

“Padawan Kisar?” 

She turned to acknowledge the elderly Jedi Master behind her and bowed to show her respect and attention. “Yes, Master Nu?”

“I need you to reorder another shelf for me please. Some over exuberant Padawans decided to study last minute for their exams and consequently placed the books and various texts into the wrong places.” The Chief Librarian’s white eyebrows were raised in expectation as she primly nodded towards the shelf she wanted Kisar to work on next.

The Cathar Padawan sighed and bowed low to show she understood before trudging over to the shelf and getting to work. Kisar began to gradually place each book where they belonged according to Master Nu’s meticulous guide.

Kisar was beginning to lose track of time as she did her work in a daze. She felt numb as she grabbed text after text and quickly scanned their title to know where to put them. 

Her eyes widened when she read the title of the book she had just picked up. 

_Response to Rising Non-Attachment Attitudes in the Jedi Order._

Kisar hesitantly looked around for Master Nu or any other witnesses before quickly stashing the small book in her robes. She could potentially fight back against the Jedi Council’s decision to keep her in the temple by using a text from past Jedi Masters. 

After she finished up her work for that day and returned to her quarters, Kisar excitedly opened the book and started to read the first pages.

_My name is Master Alan Hir. I am a Jedi Master who specializes in researching ancient texts of the Jedi and Sith. I have begun to observe a rising attitude of anti-attachment amongst my brothers and sisters within the Jedi Order. As someone with extensive knowledge of each and every era of the Jedi’s history, I would like to believe that I can provide a well-educated response to this growing movement._

_Currently, I am writing this response a thousand years after the legendary Master Odan-Urr developed his own revisions to the Jedi Code and am well-aware of his own beliefs on attachments and strong emotions. However, despite my own deep respect towards the Jedi Master, I myself do disagree with some of his teachings that have influenced the Jedi Order to a notable degree._

_His revisions to the Jedi Code are what I will first address as they are decidedly against strong emotions that would be required to form an attachment._

_Master Odan-Urr’s revised Jedi Code:_

_There is no emotion, there is peace._

_There is no ignorance, there is knowledge._

_There is no passion, there is serenity._

_There is no chaos, there is harmony._

_There is no death, there is the Force._

_The earliest known Jedi Code:_

_Emotion, yet peace._

_Ignorance, yet knowledge._

_Passion, yet serenity._

_Chaos, yet harmony._

_Death, yet the Force._

_As you can see, the original Jedi Code acknowledged that emotion is unavoidable yet does not necessarily hinder peace as long as it is properly addressed. To fall to darkness as a Force-sensitive requires a much more substantial loss of emotional control than most within the current Jedi Order will choose to admit._

_I have had some attachments during my life and none of them have resulted in a severe enough loss of emotional control where I would jeopardize the Jedi Code. I even have children from a previous lover who I love dearly. There was a point in time where I had to endure the emotional loss and anguish of losing one of my children in a terrible accident yet I did not lose my grip on the light within me and give into the dark._

_No, my attachments have caused me much pain but they have also been the greatest gifts a man such as myself could ever receive. I did not fall into darkness because of my love for my children. I knew that if I became a Sith or a Dark Jedi, I would lose my family. I would lose everything._

_Having emotional attachments and feeling strong emotions for another being is not a one-way trip to falling into darkness as some of my Jedi peers like to claim. Instead, I would argue that there is indeed a substantially higher risk to joining the Dark-side yet the benefit in this case outweighs, and, in my case, cancels out the risk._

Kisar slammed the book shut. 

The book was obviously written before the Ruusan Reformation since the author stated to have lived a thousand years after Master Odan-Urr wrote his revisions to the Code. At that point, it wouldn’t have necessarily been against the rules to form an attachment, just extremely discouraged. 

Now, with a few exceptions with different sects within the Jedi Order, it was entirely against the rules of the Jedi Code to form an attachment.

Which was why Kisar had been confined to the Jedi Temple.

“Something has to change.” She growled while pulling out some writing materials. Kisar might have not been a natural scholar, but she had a strategic mind trained in her years of war to find weaknesses and strengths in any plan.

She would prove to the Jedi Council that the Code needed to be revised again.

***

“Run that by me again, Hunter?” Cody stared at the holographic image of Hunter in disbelief as the modified clone Sergeant tried to explain to him the situation. 

“Commander, like I said before. One of the ARC troopers you know, Fives, just got into trouble for apparently going crazy. Nala Se is practically frothing at the mouth- if the long-necks _can_ even get that frustrated that is- and is looking for him right now on Kamino.”

Cody leaned back against the chair at his desk in shock as he processed his words. Fives was in trouble because he went crazy? He had known Fives since the man was a shiny and Cody would like to think he knew Fives better than most other clones except for Rex and maybe a couple of surviving members of Torrent Company. Fives had never shown signs of mental health issues even with all of the trauma he experienced on planets such as Umbara or even in the Citadel. Something wasn’t right. 

Either Nala Se made an accidental bad call when diagnosing Fives’s mental condition or she’s trying to purposely get rid of him for some reason. It wouldn’t have been the first time a Kaminoan doctor reconditioned or murdered a clone they didn’t particularly like. Cody loved Fives as a brother but he knew that the ARC trooper had issues with authority at times, even by the standards of other ARCs. It wouldn’t be too unbelievable to have someone like Nala Se getting rid of particularly independently minded clones like Fives.

He wouldn’t let that happen to his brother. They lost Heavy and Echo already. Cody would do everything he could to make sure Fives wouldn’t join his brothers in the afterlife.

“Hunter, round up the rest of your squad and find Fives before Nala Se does. I will contact Kaddak to pick him up from a remote location on Kamino after you’ve successfully found and hidden our brother. Any questions?”

The clone Sergeant smirked and looked absolutely predatory as his tattoo seemed to look more like an ominous shadow that revealed his gleaming eyes and teeth on one side. “No, sir. We’ll get to Fives before the long-necks do and stash him with us for a bit. Nala Se tries to forget we even exist so I doubt she would send anyone our way looking for him.”

“Good man. I’ll let Kaddak know immediately. Cody out.”

After he ended the call, Cody contacted Kaddak and was pleased to hear that the rogue clone was close enough to Kamino already to make a quick extraction of Fives. 

Nala Se wasn’t going to be happy to lose Fives.

Cody didn’t give a kark about her happiness.

***

Kisar knew better than to think that she could possibly call for a meeting with the entire Jedi Council so she settled for hunting down one member of the Jedi Council instead. 

Which was why she was facing the closed door of Master Windu’s quarters and knocking repeatedly to get his attention. “Master Windu, I know you’re in there! I saw you walk inside while I was rounding the corner. Nobody can go into a deep meditation that fast!”

She heard a faint growl and soft rustling from behind the door before it was opened to reveal an unamused Mace Windu. Since being slightly grumpy was basically a default attitude for the Jedi Master, Kisar wasn’t too intimidated by his glare. 

The cold tone of voice that he used to address her was new though. “What is it, Padawan?” 

“I-I wanted to talk to you, Master.”

“ _So talk._ ”

Kisar gulped, “Why did you react so strongly?”

The Korun man narrowed his eyes dangerously, “React so strongly to what, Padawan?”

Kisar crossed her arms over her chest as she tapped her foot impatiently in a rather unJedi-like manner. “You really want me to say it out here?”

Master Windu looked left to right to check for any other Jedi in the hallways outside of his room before motioning her inside. He sat down on his modest cot with a sigh and guided Kisar to sit on one of the meditation mats in his quarters. 

“I should have known better than to intimidate you into going away I suppose.” 

“Tell me why my attachment to Cody bothered you so much, Master Windu.” Kisar pressed as she leaned forward and made eye contact with the tired looking Jedi Master as he seemed to age decades after sitting down on his bed. “I’m not the first Padawan to form a connection with my Master’s clone second-in-command and you know it. What made this time so offensive?”

“Because this time it was you.” Master Windu muttered as he turned away from her and began to pour himself an alcoholic smelling drink. 

Kisar’s eyebrows rose as she took in the sight of the worn down man downing a shot. This was not the perfect Mace Windu she grew up looking up to. “Why do I make a difference then?”

He slammed the glass down on the small table beside his cot and raised his gaze to look right at Kisar with an intensity she had only seen him use in battle. “You remember what I said when I told you about Master Hosep and I finding you?”

“Yeah?”

“You remember how I talked about us realizing we would form an attachment with you if we spent too much time with you?”

Kisar didn’t answer that time. She didn’t need to.

Master Windu nodded and continued, “I knew I couldn’t cross that line. I couldn’t break the code by forming an attachment with you.”

“But I did form an attachment.” Kisar realized as she leaned back onto the wall behind her in shock. “So that’s what this is? If you can’t be my family, no one can?”

The only response she got was the Jedi Master lowering his head in obvious regret and shame. 

Kisar felt a mix of emotions as she sat there and contemplated what the Jedi Master just admitted to her. First, she felt disbelief and couldn’t comprehend how the seemingly perfect Jedi could do such a thing. After that she felt outrage at his selfishness and jealousy. Lastly, Kisar simply felt tired and defeated. Her last pillar had fallen. 

“Why do you hold onto this rule of no attachment so desperately, Master?” Kisar whispered hoarsely as she looked at Windu in horror.

“Without the Code, I am no better than a Sith.”

“No!” She shook her head in fervent disagreement as she got up and paced closer to her mentor and childhood idol. “When I was helping Master Nu, I found a book from a Jedi Master before the Ruusan Reformation that taught that the benefits of having an attachment outweigh the risks. He wrote that feeling strong emotions are unavoidable, Master Windu. What we can control is dealing with our emotions in a healthy manner.”

The Jedi Master grunted in disapproval, “Releasing your emotions into the Force works better.”

“Like you have with me lately? I read that suppressing emotions can cause them to build up and explode in a negative fashion.” Kisar kept trying to convince her Master but she knew it was a long shot. Master Mace Windu was notoriously obstinate. She was a characteristically persistent graduate of the Dragon Clan but so was he.

“It’s too late for that, Kisar.” He sighed as he placed a hand surprisingly gently on her shoulder despite their previous tension. “There is a war going on. Now is not the time to make such considerable changes even if they were true. Lay low and continue your training. You’ll become a Knight someday and maybe then you can start advocating for such things if you so choose to. You’re a good Jedi, Kisar. Don’t ruin your career by pursuing such things right now.”

She felt tears well up in her eyes and wiped them away in embarrassed frustration. “You don’t get it. This entire war is a sign that we need to change. There’s more than one Jedi out there like Skywalker with some secret lover or something like that and we both know it. This is gonna ruin us if we don’t find a way to address the Code.”

Master Windu opened his mouth to respond but Kisar was tired of listening to his excuses. She looked up to him still but had realized he was lost in his ways. 

She stood up abruptly and walked out of his quarters even as Master Windu called out for her to stop.

Kisar was so tired.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that this took so long but I was in the middle of nowhere for a while on vacation so I couldn't update until now. I hope you all enjoy it!

Cody didn’t know what happened. He had organized a rescue effort to save Fives from Nala Se by asking the Bad Batch and Kaddak for help but lost contact with Kaddak not long after the rogue Commando picked up Fives from Kamino.

The only clue he had to figure out what happened was a message from Kaddak right before he and Fives disappeared.

_“Cody, it’s Kaddak. There’s some Umbaran witch chasing after Fives and I. I think she’s some sort of Force-sensitive and she appears to be going after Fives specifically. Be careful, brother. She might be onto our investigation. I’m taking Fives to Wild Space and hopefully will lose our unwanted company there. Kaddak out.”_

“Kriff.” Cody swore as he rubbed his eyes in frustration and switched to massaging his throbbing head. And he thought the war was stressful.

An Umbaran witch was hunting them down? Fives was involved in Umbara and was crucial in undermining the traitor Krell’s plot to cause a Republic defeat on the shadow planet. Perhaps some Umbarans had found out about what happened and wanted revenge? 

Cody could have asked Rex for more information on what happened with Krell but that would’ve required informing Rex of his suspicions and probing and he did not want to risk getting his closest brother in trouble. 

He couldn’t go after them himself, unfortunately and knew few people outside of Kaddak that were outside of the Republic.

The Marshal Commander sighed deeply and commed Gregor in order to update him on the situation.

Hopefully, Kaddak would contact Cody soon to show that he and Fives were okay.

***

Kisar had been in a bad mood for a solid four months now. 

She fulfilled a prophecy and possibly saved _millions_ of future Cathar lives by doing so yet she was punished by the Jedi Council. She would become as stiff and grumpy as Master Windu pretty soon if things continued the way they were.

Kisar had earned a reputation amongst Padawans and Initiates alike of being unapproachable which was why she was confused when a knock sounded at the door of her quarters. The Cathar girl cautiously approached her door and opened it to see Petro of all people nervously fidgeting in front of her.

Kisar growled, “ _Petro.”_ His idiotic stunt with those clone assassins put her in bigger trouble than she was in before with the Jedi Council.

The Initiate winced and shrunk down a bit. “Hey, Kisar. H-How have ya been?”

“I’ve had better days.”

“I’m sure you’ve had worse though….right?”

He sounded hopeful for her forgiveness and assurance that things were okay. It was probably why he went out of his way to approach her in her own quarters. 

Kisar wasn’t particularly willing to offer her forgiveness just yet. Petro owed her one big time and she was more than ready to collect. “Let’s just say I miss being hunted down by overzealous Mandos at the moment.”

“ _Oh_ ….yeah, I’m sorry. I really am, Kisar.” The Human boy sounded so earnest. She could only imagine the heat he had been taking from his clanmates for messing with the wrong clones and getting her in trouble after she rescued him.

Kisar sighed a little too dramatically before leaning against her doorway with a raised eyebrow. “Here’s the thing, Petro, you put me in a tougher spot than I already was in with the Jedi Council. Now I’ve got an even bigger hole to dig myself out of because you decided to challenge some _karking.clone.assassins_. What’s next? Should I contact the Null I met and let him know you want to spar so you’ll actually get seriously creamed this time?”

“W-Wait...you know an ARC Null?!”

She rolled her eyes. “Not important. What I’m trying to say is that you owe me a _huge_ favor and it’s time for you to do that favor for me.”

Petro looked unnerved by the prospect but she respected that he still shakily nodded his agreement. He was usually such a prideful and confident kid but his experience with the clone assassins and the consequences of his actions really seemed to have resonated with him. Perhaps there was hope for blowhards like Petro after all.

The disgraced Cathar Padawan gave a toothy predator’s smile as she cooed. “Ever been to the local clone barracks?”

Petro audibly gulped in response.

***

Cody was on his way back to his office as his form slumped lower and lower with each step. He was so tired and frustrated. He still didn’t know what the hell happened to Kaddak and Fives and it was wearing him down. 

The clone Marshal Commander moved with almost sluggish steps as he entered his office and collapsed onto his chair with a grown. The room seemed so dark and heavy. It was almost as if something was pressing down on him to enter unconsciousness. His body seemed all too eager to accept until a warning bell sounded in his mind. 

Something was wrong.

He knew that heavy feeling. 

General Kenobi told him about it after the men seemed negatively affected after being in Ventress’s presence. The Jedi explained that even non-Force-Sensitive people could tell that something was wrong around a Sith or Dark Jedi.

It was the Dark Side. 

His once weary eyes snapped open in alarm and he drew his blaster and rotated it around the room to try and locate whatever Dark-sider made themselves at home in his office.

“Show yourself!”

A feminine chuckle bounced off the walls and sounded like a knife slowly and unpleasantly scraping against glass to his ears. 

Cody shivered slightly in unease. He was no Jedi and was pretty useless without his full set of armor instead of only the bottom half and some blacks that he had on at the moment. “I said show yourself!”

“Do not be alarmed, dear Commander. I am not here to kill you.”

“Then what are you here for? And who are you?”

The Dark intruder sounded closer this time as they answered coolly. “I’m here to free you from your troublesome conscious and free will as my Master commands me.”

“Not gonna happen.” Cody growled lowly as he swivelled around to point his blaster behind him where he thought he heard the woman’s voice.

“Silly clone. You don’t have a choice.”

Suddenly, disturbingly cold and smooth hands were pressed firmly to his forehead. Cody felt a rush of something sharp and painful enter his thoughts before everything went blank.

His body fell back onto his chair with a thump as the room went completely silent again and indicated the departure of his violator.

***

Kisar was peacefully in a deep meditation for the first time in months as she felt the lifeforms around her through the Force. So many people considered Coruscant to be a lifeless place because of its lack of nature but Kisar considered it to be one of the most lively places in the galaxy due to its huge population. Not even Felucia’s fauna could compete with Coruscant’s citizens in her mind.

Unfortunately, her relaxation was cut short when she felt someone roughly grab her shoulders and shake them frantically to break her out of meditation. Kisar opened her eyes with an audible rumbling growl and glared at the Wookie youngling in front of her. 

“This better be good, Gungi.”

The Wookie youngling made a few growling noises in his native language while Kisar struggled to mentally translate what he was saying. Her eyes widened in horror when she made out the words, “Cody” and “hurt.” 

“So you’re saying Petro found Cody unconscious when he went to his office like I asked?”

Gungi nodded gravely.

“And Cody’s still not waking up even in the medbay?”

Another nod. 

“ _Kriff._ ”

Gungi huffed in agreement.

Kisar hummed in thought as she contemplated what to do. She wasn’t exactly allowed in the barracks anymore so it would be risky to try and go see Cody for herself but maybe she could try and contact Rex first? She wasn’t really encouraged to talk to any clones but the Jedi Council really only specified the 212th to not contact so _technically_ Rex would be okay.

She quickly commed the 501st’s Captain as Gungi sat close beside her in what she assumed was an attempt of comfort. 

When the blonde clone responded, Kisar sighed in relief. “Rex! Am I glad to hear your voice.”

“Likewise, kid. I take it you’ve heard about Cody?” Rex sounded so dejected as he asked her. His closest brother and confidant might have been unsaveable at that moment so she didn’t blame him. Kisar was close to losing it herself after hearing the news. Her hands hadn’t stopped trembling ever since she found out Cody wasn’t waking up.

“Yeah, I heard, Rex. What more can you tell me?” 

“It’s bad. Very bad. He’s usually unconscious but what I do hear when he’s semi-conscious is the mantra, ‘Good soldiers follow orders,’ just like with Tup. The long-necks are saying it’s just what every clone thinks in our subconscious due to training but I’m not buying it.”

Kisar narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “That doesn’t sound good at all. Do you think if I snuck over there and paid our favorite Commander a visit, that it would help?”

“Usually, I’d advise against it considering how much of a tight leash the Council has got you on, but in this case, it couldn’t hurt, kid.” Rex deeply sighed over the comm.

“Okay. I’ll make my way over as discreetly as possible. Kisar out.”

***

Realistically, it had only been a little over two years since the days that she felt that she needed to sneak into the clone barracks but it felt like forever for Kisar. The years of war and the former weight of a prophecy hanging over her head had changed her drastically in such a short time. 

From Initiate to Padawan. 

From shiny to veteran.

From street-rat to Commander.

And the man she had to thank for such intense adaptations to the war was unconscious and sometimes spouting nonsense. He would be dispatched for sure if someone didn’t fix him quickly.

“I’m coming, Cody.” She whispered lowly as she expertly snuck past the Coruscant guards and into the vast hallways of the barracks. 

When she saw some unfamiliar clones headed her way, Kisar swiftly hopped into the vent above her to hide before continuing to make her way to the 212th section of the barracks in the vents.

After what seemed like an hour, Kisar finally made it to the 212th barracks. She sighed in relief before dropping down into the hallway beneath her. 

“Commander! What are you doing here?”

She slowly turned to see a shocked Wooley staring at her. Kisar chuckled and shrugged, “Oh, you know, just thought I’d drop by.”

The clone trooper shook his head and gave a low chuckle of his own at the reminder of the first time she snuck into the barracks, “Just thought you’d drop by? How unoriginal.”

“I missed you, Wooley.” She wrapped her arms around the intimidating man as he didn’t hesitate to return the warm hug.

“I missed you too, kid.”

“What happened with Cody?”

Wooley sighed. “I don’t know. Helix is unsure and for some reason all of Foxtrot looks a bit pale at the moment. Something tells me they know more than they let on.”

Kisar nodded slowly to show she understood. “Can I see him?”

Her voice sounded a lot meeker than she intended it to come out as.

Wooley’s eyes softened as he squeezed her shoulders in comfort. “Of course. We’ll get our favorite stiff back in business in no time if you spend some time with him I think. The whole 212th knows you’re his soft spot.”

Kisar smiled weakly and followed him to the medical center as she passed by several 212th members who looked shocked but otherwise happy to see her. Even the shinies that she had never met seemed to respect and like her.

Helix was the first to greet her once she entered the medbay. The veteran medic looked worn but still blessedly alive as he gave her a brisk one-armed hug and ruffled her mane a bit in affection. 

His mood changed as he grimly informed her that he had no idea what was wrong with Cody and didn’t know how to make him better. Helix then silently moved the curtain to reveal the all too still form of her mentor and guardian. 

Kisar felt her emotions become too much to handle at the sight and collapsed partially over Cody’s blanket covered form. The first time she physically saw him in months and he was in bad condition. She let out a few sobs as she clutched desperately at his medical clothing. “ _Please_ wake up!”

She felt both Wooley and Helix pet her mane awkwardly to try and console her. Kisar’s eyelids started to droop automatically when she felt them both start to massage her ears. The troopers noticed her reaction and continued in order to try and get her to sleep. They obviously had noticed how little sleep she had been getting those last months right away. 

Suddenly, she felt a few more hands join Helix and Wooley’s touches and blearily looked up to see the worried faces of Foxtrot. 

Aid, their medic, softly murmured in her pointed ear, “Sleep, kid. We’ll talk when you wake up.”

Kisar’s exhausted and overloaded brain didn’t need anymore encouragement as she followed his gentile command and drifted off to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Kisar expected at least one Jedi to locate her after she broke the rules and entered the 212th barracks but she wasn’t expecting that Jedi to be Anakin Skywalker. 

The tall Tatooine native looked awkward and very reluctant to be there as he shuffled inside of the room to sit closer to Kisar and the unconscious form of Cody laying on the medical bed.

“ _ Hi chuba da naga?" _ She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the Jedi Knight and waited for his response. He was the only one she really spoke in Huttese with anymore since her social life was restricted to just Jedi at that point.

“ _ Me koose un wankee. _ ” Anakin responded with a shrug and placed a holocron in her lap and moved to sit up and walk away. 

Kisar couldn’t let him go yet. “ _ Hagwa yatuka.  _ Please. I need to know something before you leave.”

“ _ Choy? _ ” He sighed as he slumped back down onto the chair. 

“Who made you bring this to me?”

Anakin scoffed as he rubbed at his eyes. He was not looking so good. He hadn’t since Ahsoka left but for some reason he seemed worse to Kisar now. Perhaps another large stressor came into his life?

“Master Windu. He seemed actually concerned.” The famous Jedi looked positively spiteful as he spat out his next words lowly. ”I didn’t realize that man could  _ feel _ anything but disdain for those that don’t live up to his expectations like us.” 

He was trying to get her to agree with him. To get her to agree with his views on Master Windu. She understood why though. Master Windu was one of the few Jedi Masters willing to criticize Anakin openly anymore with the war going on. Almost no one wanted to confront the “Hero With No Fear.” But just as many Jedi were unwilling to criticize Mace-Kriffing-Windu to his face too.

Kisar gaped and even felt her tail twitch a bit in shock. “Why would Master Windu still care about me? He knows where I am and how I disobeyed him and the Council.”

“ _ I don’t know. _ ” Anakin hissed as he stood up abruptly and paced in front of Cody’s bed in obvious frustration. “The Chancellor says Master Windu has issues addressing his own failures and those of the Jedi Order so maybe he’s just trying to handle your whole situation discreetly for his reputation’s sake?”

“Maybe.” She hummed a bit doubtfully in deep thought. Master Windu wouldn’t try and hide issues if he thought they were big issues. Even if they were within himself or the Jedi Order. He would, however, try to hide issues he thought were largely unimportant or even accidentally hide those he didn’t realize were real issues. Perhaps he viewed her as unimportant then if he was indirectly sending her messages through a third party?

Kisar was so caught up in her thought process that she didn’t notice how Cody’s face gave a violent twitch after Anakin spoke. The normally impassive clone’s unconscious face was blatantly showing his horror at whatever nightmare he was experiencing. She unfortunately didn’t notice any of his visual signs of distress or even how he kept mouthing the words, “Chancellor,” and “Good soldiers follow orders.”

She was blind to everything as a dark power was doing its best to cover up the horror within the clone’s head. Her senses in the Force were less than useful as she felt no warnings while her guardian remained disturbed within his own nightmares as Cody did his best to fight off the vile thing trying to control his mind and make him become the murderer he was in his previous nightmares. 

Anakin also was ignorant as he approached Kisar again and nudged her shoulder with his metal hand affectionately. “Hey,  _ Bantha poodoo _ . There was something else Master Windu wanted me to do.”

His nickname for her had been Bantha poodoo ever since she taught Ahsoka various Huttese insults to tease him years ago in the first year of the war. 

“Yeah, and what’s that?”

The Human male shrugged unhelpfully as he made his way out of the room. “He didn’t say what. All he said is stay put and the ‘peace offering’ will come to you.”

Kisar nodded to show she understood before asking him a last question. “Hey,  _ stupa _ . Why did you, of all people, help Master Windu do this?”

Anakin paused in the doorway before answering so quietly that even she as a Cathar struggled to hear, “Because it wasn’t for him. I was doing it for you.”

Such an honest admission of care was rare from Skywalker nowadays after Ahsoka left. Kisar felt her eyes water a bit. “I miss her too, you know.”

“I know.” The Hero With No Fear sighed with drooped shoulders as he walked into the hallway without looking back.

Kisar watched him go with a regretful look. She wished they could hang out more like old times with Master Kenobi and Ahsoka but those days were over.

The Cathar Padawan cheered herself up by remembering that there would be plenty of time to get together after the war ended eventually.

She looked forward to seeing Anakin Skywalker then.

***

Cody’s condition had been steadily worsening as the hours ticked on by. Helix and Rex claimed he had once maintained semi-consciousness at times but for some reason he hadn’t so much as cracked open his eyes ever since she arrived.

Helix and Wooley were getting worried but they had the good sense to try and hide their negative feelings from Kisar. Unfortunately, she knew the men too well and saw through their mask of calmness. 

Which was why she was angrily whispering at the medic and the trooper in front of Cody’s bed.

“You know what happens to Cody if he doesn’t wake up soon! Why aren’t we trying to find a way to get him out of here so he doesn’t end up organic waste at the bottom of one of Tipoca City’s factories!”

Helix frowned darkly as he crossed his arms over his armored chest. “You think I’m happy about this? About seeing one of my closest brother’s not waking up no matter what I try!”

“We need to get him out of Kamino’s reach, Helix.” Kisar pleaded as she turned and grabbed the medic’s elbow to try and convince him. “They’ll take him away. None of the long-necks wants to deal with figuring out what’s wrong with him. They just want to get rid of Cody and produce some other CC’s to replace him.”

Helix didn’t say anything for a few minutes as he processed her words. Kisar was painfully made aware of the fact that the two men in front of her, despite their vast experience, were simple clone troopers and not clones with specialized training that amplifies independent thinking. They weren’t Cody or Gregor or even Hunter, they were troopers that were trained to be absolutely obedient to the Republic. She didn’t know if they could even find the strength within themselves to go against the Kaminoans and smuggle Cody away.

After what felt like an agonizing eternity, Helix gave a rumbling answer, “ _ Alright _ . What’s the plan?”

Kisar didn’t attempt to hide her loud sigh in relief. “I hate to drag anyone else into this but I think we’ll need to find Gregor and the rest of Foxtrot. Neither of us have the authority to just waltz out of the barracks and into a ship without being stopped so we need an officer.”

She paused as she stroked her chin in thought. A habit she picked up from Cody who in turn picked it up from Master Obi-wan. “And I think I’ll have to go to his quarters and pick up his armor and things while you two pick up some of your own stuff.”

Wooley nodded in agreement to her plan and gently grasped her shoulder. “He’s proud of how you’ve matured, you know that? We all are.”

Kisar felt her eyes water for the second time that day. Kark, she was about as emotional as a….well as a teenage girl. Something she would become in about a standard month on her birthday. She hoped Cody would be alive to celebrate it with her. The clones always made a big deal out of her birthday as they didn’t have one themselves.

Foxtrot was unsurprisingly onboard with their escape plan for Cody and had no problem packing their things and getting their own personal ship ready. Kisar was worried that the Republic could track the ship, but Savvy quickly assured her that they had removed any means of tracking from the ship.

“You sure this is gonna work?” Kisar whispered as she was unceremoniously shoved under Cody’s bed onto a table underneath to be hidden from the Coruscant Guards as they made their way through the hallways. The sheets from his medical bed covered her form as they were wheeled around to make their hopefully smooth escape. 

The response she got was a swift kick to her side from probably Aid, Wooley, or Rush as they continued a purposeful march to the exit of the barracks with Helix and Gregor taking the lead. Savvy covered the rear and occasionally discreetly adjusted the sheets around the bed to make sure it properly covered Kisar’s form below.

An unfamiliar clone’s voice called out, “Halt! What are you doing?”

She heard Gregor answer smoothly, “We have orders to bring Commander Cody to Kamino.” 

The Coruscant Guard didn’t sound convinced. “We did not hear of such a thing. Who authorized this?”

“You want me to tell Nala Se that her orders of bringing the Commander to her ASAP were delayed because of you lot?” Gregor snorted.

Kisar could imagine the horror on their faces underneath their helmets as the Guard troopers hurriedly ushered the group past and into the hangar where the ships were held. Nala Se was a Kaminoan no clone wanted to get on the bad side of. 

She and Cody were wheeled up a ramp and into Foxtrot’s ship before she was finally allowed to slip out from underneath the bed. Kisar cracked her neck and stretched out her limbs after moving from her cramped position.

The preteen shot a questioning glance to the frantic looking Commandos as they activated the ship and swiftly began to take-off in a manner she only saw in dangerous battlefield situations. 

“Guys...what’s wrong? The Guards let us pass and no one will know for a while of what we did.”

Aid turned back to her as they entered one of the flight lanes to get off of Coruscant. “Remember how I said we would talk before you fell asleep yesterday?”

“Yeah?”

“We hadn’t told you why we think Cody is like this yet.”

Kisar narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “You know what happened?”

Savvy snorted from his position in the cockpit. “We  _ think _ we know, kid.”

“Then what do you think you know?” Helix interjected with a growl. The medic was obviously not happy about having possibly helpful information about Cody’s health kept from him.

The members of Foxtrot shuffled a bit uncomfortably before Gregor finally enlightened them. “We believe that Cody has stumbled upon some big conspiracy about the creation and purpose of the clones and that someone is trying to shut him up.”

“ _ What? _ ” Wooley gasped after a few moments of shocked silence. 

“You heard us.” Rush grumbled as he thumped his head back against the wall behind him and sighed. 

Kisar sat still for a minute and thought over what she just heard. Cody found out about the real reason for the creation of the clones or was close enough to finding the truth that he was “shut up” by whoever was involved in the conspiracy apparently. If he was in the condition he was because of someone attacking him then whoever did attack him was scarily good at stealthily infiltrating a place as well-guarded and populated as the clone barracks. 

She understood why Foxtrot was acting like Darth Nihilus himself was on their heels now.

They were likely being hunted. The disappearance of Cody was bound to be noticed by whoever attacked him in the first place.

“We need to get as far away from the Republic or the Separatists as soon as possible.” Kisar whispered hoarsely.

As if in response to her words, Savvy cursed in the pilot’s chair and shouted back to everyone behind him, “We’ve got someone tailing us!”

“Friend or foe?” Gregor asked as he joined Savvy in the cockpit to assess the situation. The Commando had his “Captain” voice on as Kisar liked to call it and was ordering members of Foxtrot and Helix and Wooley around to prepare for a possible firefight even so close to Coruscant. 

He turned to Kisar with a stern look. “Kid?”

She shakily turned to him while clutching at Cody’s hand instinctively. She would protect him no matter what it took and wouldn’t let whoever was after him shut him up for good this time. Cody had watched over her and protected her so many times in the past as her guardian. It was Kisar’s turn to protect him. “Yeah?”

His eyes softened a bit at the sight of her flustered form. “Keep an eye on Cody, would ya? We’ll handle this. You just worry about our Commander here.”

Kisar nodded with a determined look. “Yes, sir.”

Gregor grunted in approval before sharply ordering Savvy to try and enter hyperspace to lose their pursuer. 

Kisar huddled closer to Cody’s unconscious body both to comfort herself and perhaps even comfort him in whatever dream realm he was in. “Don’t worry, Cody. Your family is here. Remember what you taught me? We’re handling this together. No going off and doing it alone this time.”

She doubted she had the strength to leave him again anyways. 

**Translations**

_ Hi chuba da naga?:  _ What do you want?

_ Me koose un wankee:  _ I bring a message. (roughly)

_ Hagwa yatuka:  _ Don’t move.

_ Choy?:  _ What?

_ Bantha poodoo:  _ Bantha fodder 

_ Stupa:  _ Fool


	7. Chapter 7

“Did they say who they were?” Savvy hissed to Gregor quietly but Kisar could still hear them with her large pointed ears.

“No.” The Captain responded grimly as everyone inside of the ship began to shuffle uncomfortably. If they were caught by the wrong person, everyone but Kisar could be sent to be reconditioned. “We need to get out of Coruscant's atmosphere and fast.”

“Workin’ on it.” Savvy growled as he began pressing buttons frantically in the cockpit. Everyone held their breath as they finally felt the familiar sensation of the ship going into hyperspace.

Wooley got up from his seat and approached Gregor and Savvy. “Are they still following us in hyperspace, Captain?”

“Can’t tell at the moment. We’ll just have to wait and find out, Wooley.”

***

Kisar’s eyes cracked open as she blearily looked around the cabin of the ship she and Cody were in. She sensed in the Force that everyone except Savvy, their main pilot, was asleep and was confused about why she woke up. 

Until she felt a twitch under her grip from Cody’s hand. Then another. Then one more until finally the unconscious man gave a strong jerk with his arm and seemed to be awakening in a violent manner. His amber eyes snapped open in a hateful glare as he turned to her with a sneer. 

Kisar gasped and tried to calm him down by stroking his hand, thinking he was panicking or hallucinating a bad nightmare but Cody wrenched his hand from her grip and began to erratically twitch as he slowly sat up in the medical bed. His purely hostile gaze never left Kisar as he stood up shakily and moved his chapped lips in a mantra. 

“Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders.”

“Cody, please calm down,” Kisar pleaded as she held out her hands in a placating gesture, “What’s going on?”

The Marshal Commander took a less tentative step towards her as he seemed to be regaining his strength rapidly. Kisar felt horrified as she watched her mentor approach her with glazed over eyes filled with malice.

“Good soldiers follow orders _._ ”

“W-what orders?” She whispered hoarsely as she pressed her comlink button to make sure everyone could hear what was going on in the room and wake up to help her. 

“ _Kill the Jedi._ ” Cody snarled before lunging at Kisar and grabbing her. For a moment, she was suspended in the air by his unforgiving grip and looked at him eye to eye. Kisar swore she could see horror and regret deep within his eyes so she tried reasoning with him again.

“It’s me, Cody. It’s Kisar. You don’t have to kill me.”

His assault seemed to stop for a few seconds and he let go of her as his face changed into a confused and shocked look. A tear ran down his face as he took in gasping breaths and gripped the medical bed in between them tightly. His body seemed to be fighting against his own thoughts as Cody turned back to her and choked out two words before his demeanor went back to its original hostility, “Kid! Run!”

Kisar knew better than to question Cody’s orders from experience so she exited the room without hesitation and almost slammed into Foxtrot, Wooley, and Helix as they were running towards the cabin to save her. 

Helix reached her first and began swiftly scanning her for injuries before dragging her behind the other soldiers to relative safety. Relative safety from _Cody._

Gregor had his blasters steadily fixed on Cody as the Commando tried to talk his brother down and help him. “Easy there, Cody. You don’t have to fight us. We’re family. It’s only family here.”

Cody’s gaze hardened into a glare as he sneered at his younger brothers. “You’re betraying the Republic by protecting that Jedi! You’re traitors! Traitors should be executed along with the Jedi!”

“What the kark is he talking about, Kisar?” Wooley hissed to her as he kept his own blaster focused on his angry Commander.

“He kept saying stuff like ‘Good soldiers follow orders’ over and over again. He said his orders were to kill the Jedi and I guess they’re also to kill anyone protecting the Jedi too.” Kisar answered lowly as the clones forming a protective barrier around her stiffened in dread at the implications of what was going on with Cody.

Aid shifted hesitantly and glanced down at the Padawan nervously. “Is _that_ what we’re made for?”

Almost as if in response to the Commando’s question, Cody charged at Gregor and dodged incoming stun bolts expertly and tackled him to the ground and used him as a shield. He began to try and wrestle away one of Gregor’s pistols for himself but Rush had joined the fight by elbowing the Commander in the face and momentarily stunning him. Gregor took advantage of Cody’s temporary disorientation by escaping from his grip and backing away enough for the men behind him to try and stun his deranged brother.

Cody, however, realized he was at a disadvantage and swiftly turned around to run through the hallways and lose his pursuers. 

Gregor cursed loudly and ordered the rest of Foxtrot to join him in chasing after Cody while also ordering Wooley and Helix to remain with Kisar to protect her if something went wrong. 

“Could this get any worse?” Wooley moaned aloud in frustration as they anxiously listened to the sounds of shouting and fighting down the hallways as their older brother used his formidable skills against his own flesh and blood. Even without his armor or weapons, Commander Cody was a force to be reckoned with and Foxtrot wasn’t trying to hurt him which further complicated things. It was only a matter of time before he could take a blaster from one of the Commandos and really do some damage.

The ship made a lurching sound as something connected to it for someone to board it. Their pursuer had caught up to them apparently.

Kisar smacked Wooley’s armored thigh in annoyance. “You just had to open your fat trap, didn’t you?”

“Both of you, shut up!” Helix growled before turning to where the sound was coming from.

For a minute, none of the three said a word as they waited for the intruder to make themselves known. Kisar had trouble breathing as she gripped her lightsaber tightly and prepared to ignite it.

Finally, an eerie female voice called out, “ _Padawan Kisar_ ….I have heard so much about you. I must say that I am a fan. I’ve been dying to meet you in my true form.”

“True form?” Kisar whispered aloud in confusion before gasping when the intruder rounded the corner and revealed herself. 

It was an Umbaran just as she was told before but this woman wasn’t just any Umbaran. Their intruder was Sly Moore, the senior aide to Chancellor Palpatine. The conspiracy was at the heart of the Republic like Gregor was previously speculating. 

Moore was adorned in black leathers and armor that revealed her true alliance to the Dark Side of the Force as she confidently strode closer to the trio. She pulled down her hood to fully reveal her face as she gave a disturbing attempt at a comforting smile to Kisar. “Do not worry, Padawan. My Master is interested in you and would rather have you alive for now. I’m afraid I will have to kill everyone else on this ship including our wayward Commander though.”

Kisar ignited both sides of her lightsaber with a threatening roar and attacked the Umbaran with wide swings of her lightsaber. Moore smirked and dodged her blows with ease with her lightning fast reflexes. “Combat may not be my specialty compared to more _subtle_ uses of the Force, but I was still trained by the best, _young one_.”

The Cathar growled in response and actually managed to land a solid kick to the front of the Umbaran’s knee, causing Moore to crumple onto the floor with a pained shriek. 

Kisar bared her teeth in a feral smile as she lifted her lightsaber again to attack Moore, but the Dark-sider beat her to it by stabbing her in the side with a stiletto knife.

She choked in pain as she looked down in shock to see the long and thin blade protruding from her torso. Kisar dazedly looked back at Moore and mumbled, “I thought you said you wanted me alive?”

“I said I’d _rather_ bring you in alive to my Master.” The Umbaran responded sinisterly as she cruelly pulled out the knife and let the Cathar’s blood spurt out from the wound. Kisar collapsed to the ground in response and a pool of blood began to surround her on the floor.

Unfortunately, for the Dark-sider, her own pride and sense of victory cost her as she ignored how Kisar’s injured body falling to the floor left Wooley and Helix with an opening to unload their blasters on their enemy.

Sly Moore may have been able to dodge the wide swings of Kisar’s lightsaber but the bombardment of blaster fire proved to be too much for her to avoid without any shield or lightsaber as she took several bolts all over her body. While her armor took the brunt of the blows, she still was obviously injured and struggled for a moment to recollect herself.

While Wooley and Helix were reloading their blasters, Moore took the opportunity to throw a powerful Force wave of energy towards them to knock them into the wall with a sickeningly loud crack. Both clones fell to the floor silent and laid unmoving on the floor of the ship.

Kisar gasped in pain and horror and called out weakly to her friends with an outstretched bloody hand while the other remained pressed against her wound to stop the blood from coming out in vain.

Moore chuckled condescendingly and slowly got up from her position to step over to where Kisar laid injured. The Umbaran aide cooed as she coldly traced her thin blade up Kisar’s body while pressing hard enough to draw blood in random places. “You’ve been through a lot for a girl so young, hmm? But that’s okay, my Master helped me when I was a young girl too. _Now he can help you._ ”

Kisar struggled feebly and only received more pressure from the blade at her shoulder now. She groaned when the knife drew blood and kept digging in deeper. 

Moore began to pet Kisar’s mane in a manner that would’ve been considered tender if she wasn’t also slowly stabbing the Jedi Padawan with a knife. 

“Shhhh...just give in and I’ll stop. It’ll all be better once you stop struggling and let my Master help you.” Sly Moore actually manically giggled, “Just like he helped me _so much_ and saved me. He’s a powerful Master who takes care of little Force-sensitives that have been hurt like us.”

Kisar noticed Cody approaching from behind and felt dread fill her veins. Did he kill his own brothers in cold blood? Her averted gaze earned Moore’s attention and the Umbaran turned around to see the now eerily still Marshal Commander. 

Moore smirked and turned back to Kisar. “It looks like my pet did his duty as he was created to. I think I’ll reward him with a quick death once you give in. Does that sound good, clone?” 

“Yes, mistress.” Cody monotonously replied while standing at attention.

Moore nodded in smug approval before returning back to driving her knife deeper into Kisar’s shoulder. The Cathar girl wheezed in pain yet shook her head no in defiance of submitting to the Dark-sider. 

Sly Moore’s gleeful comportment crumbled as a look of pure frustration and fury took over. Her eyes, which were normally white, turned yellow as if they were windows to the darkness within her. The Force felt sick as the power of the Dark Side rose up in Moore’s body as she slowly stood up and loomed over Kisar’s form. 

The unhinged woman steadily reached her hands out and pointed them at the Padawan below her. “If you will not submit….then you will die!”

Force lightning unleashed from her fingertips and attacked Kisar’s form with agonizing waves of energy. Kisar writhed in pain as the lightning continuously hit her and penetrated into her body till she could feel it in her organs and bones. A shrill sound filled the air and it took Kisar a minute to realize it was her own screams as she was tortured by the sadistic Umbaran.

The lightning onslaught halted for a moment so Moore could boast, “I heard you were skilled and dangerous even though you are young but your feeble abilities are no match for the power of the Dark Side! You will pay the price for not seeing the power my Master could give you!”

The Force lightning returned onto Kisar’s body as she once again howled in pain until she lost the strength to even do that and instead just trembled on the ground. While her head jerked to the side in response to a particularly strong current of lightning hitting her neck, she made eye contact with Cody, whose face was still emotionless but his eyes failed to conceal his horror and inner turmoil.

Kisar raised one of her hands rather pathetically in the air as she gasped, “Father! _Please!_ ”

A tear slipped down Cody’s cheek and then another. His fists were clenched at his sides as he stopped standing at attention and seemed to struggle with himself as he glanced between Kisar’s thrashing body and Sly Moore laughing above her as she unleashed more Force lightning on the Padawan. _His child._

Good soldiers follow orders.

Good soldiers follow orders.

Good so-

“ _No._ ” Cody growled quietly enough that only Kisar’s ears could’ve picked up his uttering if her own screaming wouldn’t have drowned it out. His sharp eyes narrowed when he saw the tear streaks down his kid’s face. The mantra that had been continuously running through his mind and smothering any other thoughts was fading out as pure unadulterated rage filled his mind, body, and soul instead. She called him her father, didn’t she? He had a duty as a soldier and good soldiers followed orders but he also had a much more important duty as a father. Fathers protected their kids from people like Sly Moore.

Moore was unaware of how her “pet” was fighting off her control and instead continued to torture Kisar as she began to laugh at the feeling of torturing another being. Her arrogance and sadistic nature that was seemingly endemic among Dark-siders would be her downfall as she did not see the blaster shakily rising to the back of her bald head. 

“NO!” Cody roared as he pulled the trigger and killed the woman mid-laugh.

Sly Moore dropped dead to the ground in a heap with her robes spilling over her smoking skull. Kisar was beside her as she remained on the ground practically paralyzed with agony still.

Immediately after she died, her power and control over Cody died with her as the clone gasped at the feeling of the darkness leaving his mind. 

He was free.

Cody rushed down to his kid and gathered her in his arms as he carefully stood up and brought her to the medical room of the ship. He couldn’t remember if he actually killed Aid or not and he knew that Helix was, at the very least, unconscious from his injuries, so he instead decided to activate the emergency medical droid.

He watched in a daze as the droid tended to her wounds.

“Sir?” The droid called out to him.

“Yeah?”

“Are there any others that were injured?” 

Cody swallowed a lump in his throat. “I-I don’t know if they’re alive.”

The droid almost sounded gentle when it responded, “Perhaps you should check then?”

“I can’t leave her.”

It sounded close to offended. “Sir. This patient is receiving excellent care from my superior programming. I am supposed to care for _all_ of the injured on this ship.”

Cody nodded to show he understood before hesitantly leaving Kisar’s side to see if his brothers were still alive.

He was free now, but at what cost?


	8. Chapter 8

When she opened her eyes, she was met with the sight of a stark white medbay and a medical droid leaning in far too close to her as it checked her vitals. 

Kisar pushed at its metal face with a growl, “Buzz off, will ya, clanker?! Ever hear of personal space?”

Before she could receive a reply from the obviously bemused droid, her line of vision was occupied with Helix and Cody’s identical worried frowns.

The medic spoke first, “How are you feeling, kid?”

Kisar groaned as she rubbed at her face furiously in a futile effort to ease the throbbing pain that seemed to inhabit every molecule of her body at that moment, “What the kriff happened to me, Helix? I feel so weird and tingly right now.”

Helix’s look of concern quickly darkened into a brief visage of protective fury before returning to the way it was before. “You got electrocuted by that dark witch, Sly Moore. Your stab wounds from her have since healed these past few days but your body is still recovering from that freaky lightning. Don’t you remember?”

She furrowed her brow in response as the memories of what happened when she was last awake came flooding back. She was tortured by the Chancellor’s Aide who turned out to be a Sith Acolyte. _Cody_ went mad and attacked her and the rest of the clones but turned around and killed Moore right before the Umbaran could have killed Kisar.

Her silence seemed to answer his question as Helix went about checking her vitals after she pushed away the medical droid. He hummed as he did his job and occasionally asked her questions about how she felt and if she could move certain limbs and to what degree. 

Kisar’s attention was not on him, however, it was on the morose Marshal Commander keeping his distance from her by sitting on the other side of the room. “Cody….you know I don’t blame you for what happened, right? You saved me in the end, just like you always do.”

Cody gave a humorless laugh at her words. “I _hurt_ you.”

Kisar groaned as she struggled to fully sit up and turn to him. “You didn’t. None of this is your fault. Sly Moore did something to your mind and controlled you. _She_ hurt me.”

Her surrogate father didn’t look convinced as he simply averted his gaze to end their argument. She could tell that the guilt of what happened would stick with Cody forever and there was nothing she could do to fix it. The only thing she could possibly do would be to lessen the amount of guilt without ever possibly ridding of it.

She sat back with a sigh and closed her eyes again as she continued to let Helix do his thing and check her healing progress. Kisar hadn’t been injured this badly for this long in a while due to her Cathar biology. Usually she would have been healed by now but apparently Sith lightning did some serious long-term damage even to a young and healthy Cathar. 

As she had her eyes closed, Kisar felt the distinct sensation of movement that she recognized to mean that the ship was in hyperspace. She frowned in confusion and turned to Helix and Cody. “Where are we going?”

Cody remained silent as he kept his eyes downcast but Helix supplied a gruff response, “We’re trying to locate Fives and Kaddak….or at least what’s left of them if anything.”

Kisar nodded slowly as she silently pleaded to the Force that those two were somehow alive. The fact that she and the rest of the clones on the ship barely survived Sly Moore’s attack was not comforting. 

She just needed to trust in both their abilities and in the Force’s will.

***

Cody knew better than to let his self-doubts and feelings get the best of him yet he did so anyways. 

They were almost to the last known location of Kaddak and Fives and his concerns had only increased once they landed on the backwater planet of Erlat. 

Erlat was deep in Wild Space and would have been an excellent place to hide from the Republic had there not been a Sith apparently after the two clones as well. The mountainous planet was full of caves that the indigenous residents used to live in before there was an economic boom with the unique fish that lived in their oceans. Erlat Cod was a delicacy amongst the galaxy’s elite at that point and almost all of the planet’s inhabitants had moved to oceanside cities for better jobs. 

That gave Kaddak and Fives plenty of places to hide in but also made it harder for Cody and the rest of his men to find them. They had tried to contact both the ARC trooper and the Commando but neither had responded to their comlinks. 

In his own experience, that was definitely not a good sign.

“I’m coming with!” A familiar young voice petulantly demanded behind him. 

Cody grunted in irritation while sharing a similar look with his brother and second-in-command, Gregor. There was no way in hell he would let his still recovering Jedi go out into a dangerous situation. He knew the rest of his brothers present would also agree with him and didn’t bother to search for support before turning to his charge with a dark scowl. “No.”

Kisar’s eyes narrowed as her sharp teeth were bared in a snarl. “No?”

“You are still recovering and even if you were perfectly healthy, I wouldn’t allow you to come along with us.” 

The Padawan looked incensed as her nostrils flared and her fists clenched. She hissed lowly, “I have fought in a similar condition before and you know it.”

“If I had it my way, you wouldn’t have fought in any battles at all, but I couldn’t control that then and I can now. _Get used to it._ ”

With that blunt response, Cody turned around and started walking towards the cave’s entrance with Foxtrot following after him. He trusted Wooley and Helix to keep Kisar safe on the ship and to ultimately keep her from leaving. The kid had a worrying habit of going off on her own in some reckless attempt to be heroically selfless. 

Unfortunately for her, Cody and his brothers made a vow to do everything they could to prevent that from happening after she deserted and killed Spar without the 212th by her side- where they belonged. 

As he and Foxtrot Squad drew further and further into the caves, the near impossibility of their task became more and more apparent. A planet full of intricate cave systems would make their task difficult. 

“Gregor,” Cody sighed as he grimly surveyed the dark tunnel ahead of them, “Any Commando tricks you know that you think could help us find our missing brothers?”

The clone Captain hummed thoughtfully as he too took in the wall of black in front of them. “Just a few, Commander….just a few.”

***

Kisar paced back and forth nervously as she waited for Cody to return. Helix and Wooley watched her equal parts amused and concerned by her antics but luckily left her be as she tried to calm herself down and wait. 

Her ears flattened and uprighted in a continuous pattern as she paced. Her thoughts raced of different scenarios where the clones would all be killed by a second Sith Acolyte waiting for them in the caves or where they would all get lost and slowly die of starvation.

“You’ll wear a hole in the ship’s floor if you keep doing that, _Jet’ika_.” 

Kisar turned around with a gasp at the sound of Kaddak’s voice. She threw herself at the rogue Commando and wrapped her arms around his armored waist. She thought she had lost another family member. 

Kisar felt him tense up and suddenly remembered that Kaddak wasn’t a very affectionate man and sheepishly tried to unwrap her arms from his frame only to be stopped by the clone wrapping his own arms around her. His armored chest vibrated with his chuckles as he growled out jokingly, “You couldn’t even stay out of trouble for a few months? Your Uncle Kad is very disappointed in you, squirt.”

Kisar hissed lowly in response as she nipped at one of the exposed parts of his arm that was only covered by a thick cloth. Even with her sharp teeth, the Cathar was careful to not draw any blood- not that that would seriously offend or hurt someone as crazy and tough as Kaddak.

The clone that held her captive in his arms simply laughed even more after she lightly bit him and tightened his embrace as revenge. Kisar struggled in his grip which only caused him to switch his hug into a much less touching and affectionate chokehold. 

This naturally meant that the Padawan he was trying to get to submit did the exact opposite. Kisar might have not been the best at escaping chokeholds, she never was able to escape Cody’s after all, but she was not going to give Kaddak the satisfaction of yielding. She even went so far as to crane her head up far enough to defiantly glare at her captor and arguably mediocre uncle-figure.

Kaddak smirked evilly in response and didn’t let up in his hold. The two were in a battle of wills to see if Kaddak would let go or if Kisar would tap out or pass out. 

Their battle was interrupted by an unamused pair of medics. Aid took it upon himself to remove Kaddak’s hold from Kisar while Helix was checking over Kisar and chastising the woozy girl for her reckless actions. 

Cody was widely grinning at the scene and slapped Kaddak on the back once Aid was done detaching him from Kisar. “Trust me, brother, the kid has never had good enough common sense to give up and usually just passed out whenever I put her in a hold during sparring.”

“Worth it.” Kisar hacked out as she greedily inhaled air and further proved Cody’s point to Kaddak. 

Fives had been suspiciously silent during the entire exchange- which was unusual for the boisterous ARC trooper. He had previously had no issue with teasing Kisar and offering some sarcastic remarks even to a brother as feared and respected as Cody, yet had not said one word to either. 

Gregor must have noticed it as well as he approached his fellow special forces comrade and clasped his shoulder. “Fives? Brother, are you alright?”

The ARC trooper’s eyes narrowed and welled up with tears for a moment without actually letting any tears fall. His right hand gripped his helmet at his hip with an intense strength that would’ve shattered lesser materials. Fives slightly trembled as he spat out, “ _No,_ Gregor. No, I am not.”

***

Cody might have been well-trained and experienced with types of strange situations that only spending time with Jedi could produce, but even he didn’t know what to do once they retrieved an incredibly alive Fives and Kaddak. The two had apparently hidden so far within the caves that even a Force-sensitive like Sly Moore couldn’t have found them without knowing the trail purposely left behind that another trained special forces clone like Gregor could recognize. The rogue Marshal Commander sighed as he surveyed his family.

Savvy and Rush were arguing beside them as they fussed over some repairs to the ship. Gregor was watching both of them with a smirk while simultaneously keeping a concerned eye on Fives, who had remained silent since his first words on Erlat. Kaddak and Wooley were taunting an annoyed Kisar as she responded with some creative insults in several languages. Helix and Aid were both trying to rewrap the bandages around the squirming Cathar as she growled and hissed in protest. 

They all meant so much to him, yet he didn’t know how to protect them and lead them to safety. The entire Republic was after them and believed them to be deserters and perhaps even murderers if they had found out that Sly Moore had gone after them and since not returned. It was likely that only those that were involved in the conspiracy would know the true reasons for Moore’s disappearance but it was possible that the Chancellor used her vanishing to accuse him of murder and kidnapping.

He had not checked the HoloNet yet but wouldn’t be surprised to see his face and the faces of his family on a wanted list. _Kriff_ , what would Rex think if he saw it? His closest brother had to have noticed his desertion. Cody could only wonder what his brother was feeling at the moment.

“Savvy.” Cody called out loudly to be heard over the various arguments and conversations going on in the common room.

The Commando jumped up and stood at attention. “Commander?”

“Pull up the HoloNews and see what the Republic is saying about us.”

“Yes, sir!”

Cody waited with barely concealed impatience as the Commando typed into a device and had it project a news story onto the nearby wall. Every other conversation and exchange had stopped as all eyes turned to the news to discover their fate. 

A beautiful and slim near-human woman in professional yet purposely alluring clothing appeared as she cheerfully recounted what had happened in the capital city-planet of Coruscant that week. All of the news meant nothing to Cody until the newscaster began to talk about “violent rogue clones” that escaped a medical facility in the military barracks on Coruscant.

“Turn the volume up!” Gregor hissed as he leaned in closer to listen to the woman.

“ _Today marks three standard months since some of our great Republic troopers kidnapped a Jedi youngling and fled on a stolen ship out of Republic Space. Chancellor Palpatine’s primary aide, Sly Moore, has also been reported missing and some investigators are trying to find a connection between these two events. The Jedi Council is also looking into the kidnapping of Padawan Kisar and some of our inside sources have reported that the Jedi believe she was forcibly taken by the previously believed to be comatose clone Marshal Commander Cody and some other members of the 212th Attack Battalion.”_

Cody clutched his helmet tight to his chest as he continued to listen.

_“Rumors have circulated around the galaxy about what happened to the missing Padawan, aide, and clones but the truth has yet to be revealed. Rest assured, the Republic’s finest have been assigned to this case by the Chancellor himself. These criminals will be apprehended and the Jedi youngling will be brought back to the safety of the Jedi Temple as promised by the war-hero, Admiral Tarkin. Thank you all for listening in this week and have a safe trip home in that traffic!”_

So Tarkin was after them then. It made sense to Cody. The man was ambitious and did not care about the lives of others if they got in his way. He was also extremely loyal to the Chancellor and held a grudge against clones and Jedi alike. After Ahsoka Tano’s failed trial, the Commander was sure that Tarkin was more than ready to redeem himself in order to “save” Kisar from him and earn some more admiration from his fellow officers. 

With the severe imbalance of resources and manpower, Cody knew it was only a matter of time before they were caught. He just needed to do what needed to be done in what little time he had then. No matter, he would do whatever it would take to protect his family and to gain permanent freedom. 

“Fives?”

The ARC trooper jerked up from his eerily still state by the wall. “Sir?”

“Debrief me on what you found out on Kamino, trooper.”

Cody glanced at Kisar from the corner of his eye and was reminded of the nightmare he had of killing a Jedi youngling on Kashyyyk and of shooting down General Kenobi. He had even tried to hurt his own kid for Force’s sake! Jango had obviously made them for a reason and Cody figured the notorious Jedi-killer and survivor of Galidraan wasn’t doing it to make a loyal army to the Republic and Jedi. “We have a Republic to save so I’ll need to know _everything._ ”


	9. Chapter 9

Through the combined knowledge acquired by Kaddak, Fives, and Cody, the gathering of clones and their Jedi unveiled a disturbing reality. The clones had chips in their brains that would make them follow any order blindly, but the order they specifically were made to complete was to kill the Jedi.

In the heart of that conspiracy was Chancellor Palpatine, the presumed Sith Lord who sent Sly Moore after them. They had to find a way to either stop his plan from coming into fruition or try to warn both the Jedi and the clones before it would be too late. 

Cody had faced some daunting tasks before, but he knew this one would probably remain at the top of the list for the rest of his life.

“He knows we’re onto him. I wouldn’t be surprised if Palpatine is already starting the process of Order 66 and overthrowing the Republic.” Gregor grumbled as he sharpened one of his many blades in a vain effort to comfort himself. He was giving obvious nervous glances to Kisar, something every clone had been doing as they wondered if the chips within their heads had truly been successfully removed. Helix and Aid had both surgically extracted the biochips but there remained a fear of Palpatine still somehow having control over them. They couldn’t bear to turn on their Jedi.

Cody placed a hand gently on his brother’s shoulder in consolation before stepping forward so that everyone in the main room of the ship could see his face as he concluded aloud, “But yet we have seen no signs of that happening yet. Something is keeping Palpatine from activating Order 66.”

Kisar suddenly jerked forward as her eyes lit up with realization. “Maybe not something. Maybe _someone._ ” 

“What do you mean, kid?”

The Padawan was pacing around the floor as she voiced her thoughts, “Every Sith Lord needs an apprentice. It’s the Rule of Two that Master Kenobi told me about. If Dooku is a Sith, then I think he’s Palpatine’s apprentice.”

Kaddak grunted skeptically, “So he’s already got an apprentice then? Why would Palpatine wait? And what about Sly Moore?”

“Because the Count’s not the apprentice he wants. And even if Moore was his apprentice- which I highly doubt due to how quickly we killed her- she’s dead and Palpatine needs a new and better one. There has to be someone much younger with more potential and future longevity that Palpatine wants.”

That statement gained some confused stares from the identical men surrounding her. Kisar sighed in frustration before continuing, “Why would Palpatine want Dooku? I’m pretty sure Dooku’s older than him anyways even if he’s powerful and skilled. I think the Count’s being used and is only temporary.”

“Then who do you think is this new candidate that Palpatine is holding out for?” Cody narrowed his eyes as he too began to think of potential Force-users that Palpatine would want as an apprentice. 

The Cathar before him frowned as she tried to answer his question. Her tail twitched and moved around a bit revealing her own chaotic thoughts. She had always been hard to keep still but when she was that deep in-thought, it might as well have been impossible to have Kisar remain motionless.

Cody was about to shake her out of her thoughts when she started and slowly turned to him with a horrified look on her face. 

“I know who it is.”

*** 

“You’re sure this will work?” Wooley questioned warily as everyone watched Savvy and Rush fiddle with the communications systems on their ship. 

Kisar had explained the various conversations she’d had with Anakin Skywalker revealing his own grooming by the Chancellor to distrust Jedi teachings. This shocked all of the clones except for Cody, who had seen how the Chancellor acted around Skywalker firsthand. He had also admitted to hearing some concerns from his closest brother, Captain Rex, since Rex saw much more of Anakin’s interactions with the Chancellor. 

They had put everything together after Kisar remembered the last conversation she had with Anakin before she deserted to save Cody. Her Jedi friend had been noticeably exhausted and something was obviously bothering him but Kisar did not know what at the time. Anakin had also revealed some of the Chancellor’s grooming in what he bitterly stated about Master Windu being blind to his faults and the faults of the Jedi Order. According to what she had heard from her former Jedi Master, Obi-wan Kenobi, the Chancellor had been “advising” Anakin since he was a Jedi youngling straight from Tatooine. 

That meant the influence of the Sith and the Dark Side went _deep_ in Anakin Skywalker. Perhaps too deep to prevent it from taking over and causing his fall from the Light Side. Kisar would do everything she could to prevent that from happening and to save the Jedi.

“It’ll have to work, Wooley.” Kisar replied in a no-nonsense tone. She had aged so much since she reentered the Jedi Order at the beginning of the war. Even though she had recently turned 13 a couple of standard months ago, Kisar felt twice as old with all that she had done and seen.

“Are you sure they will listen to us?” Cody sighed as he stood beside her. His presence had always been comforting to Kisar. The young Jedi Padawan didn’t know what she would have done if Cody had died from what Sly Moore did to him. She would have lost her greatest source of strength.

The Cathar teen grimaced as she shrugged. “Palpatine’s plans are too far along for us to do anything else but warn the Jedi, clones, and general Republic.”

Kaddak grunted behind them as he meticulously cleaned one of his blasters, “If we go through with this, it will force Palpatine’s hand to initiate Order 66.”

Fives nodded along with the Commando’s words before answering, “If we don’t go through with this, Palpatine will initiate Order 66 eventually anyways. If we do this, it will at least be more on our terms. We will know when it’s coming and so will everyone else. That’s the point of this.”

“But will they listen to us?” Cody repeated himself.

Kisar hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t think a lot of Jedi Knights and Masters will believe me, but our warning should at least put them on guard. I know the younglings and Padawans within the main temple a lot better and they are more likely to believe me.” She paused for a moment then smirked up at the highest ranked clone in the Republic. “And besides, you’re _Marshal Commander Cody,_ rogue clone or not, there will be troopers that will listen to your warning....for whatever good it will do with the control chips.”

“Fine. We’ll do this….for the Republic, our brothers, and for the Jedi.” Cody nodded as he and Kisar both stood in front of the camera to create a hologram message to be sent throughout the entire Republic. 

Savvy and Rush had managed to hack into every major means of communication in the Republic, civilian and otherwise, to relay their message to. 

Once the warning message was sent, Kisar knew the Republic would start to implode. 

She could only hope that there would be something left after the dust settled.

***

His beloved Republic was in a panic. The rest of the galaxy gasped for breath with her.

Cody was ready to join both of them in their disarray.

His head had been in his hands ever since they sent out a warning with himself, Fives, and Kisar as the ones warning the galaxy of the imminence of Order 66 and the Chancellor’s betrayal. 

Most wouldn’t believe them, but Cody knew they couldn’t expect any more than a few to listen and be prepared. He hoped _Rex_ would hear the warning and listen. He was there to see what happened to Tup and perhaps would believe both Fives and Cody.

He could only hope.

Cody lifted his face from his hands to look at Kisar as she too mourned the countless deaths occurring across the galaxy. Their warning was on the news and discussed publicly for about two hours before “mysteriously” disappearing. The spotlight had quickly switched over to the Jedi as an apparent coup was attempted to overthrow the Chancellor. The Jedi were quickly labeled traitors to the Republic and Order 66 happened immediately after. 

The Jedi Temple was being stormed as the rogue group of clones and a Jedi sat in relative safety on the other side of the galaxy. Jedi Generals and Commanders were being shot in the back from where they were stationed all around the galaxy.

Order 66 might have been executed prematurely, but Cody was beginning to wonder if their warning even helped. Had the Chancellor already gained Skywalker’s loyalty as a Sith apprentice? Or had there actually been another hidden apprentice that they didn’t know about?

From what he had heard, the 212th was on Utapau and was being led by Alpha-17 and General Kenobi. The 501st was split in two with some on Mandalore led by a reinstated Ahsoka Tano and Rex, who had surprisingly been promoted to Commander. Cody felt a sad smile grow on his lips for a moment at the thought. Rex had rejected promotions for years due to his love of his longtime position as Captain and probably only became a Commander because of Tano’s involvement. 

The rest of the 501st were on Coruscant after the planet had been attacked by Separatist forces. The Chancellor had been kidnapped by Grievous and Skywalker and Kenobi rescued him. Skywalker killed Dooku, which left Grievous as the de facto leader.

That meant that the 212th was in the most important battle in the Republic at that moment. 

And Order 66 was a ginormous bomb dropped in the middle of that battlefield and thousands of others throughout the galaxy. Wherever there were clones, there would be death. Would Kenobi survive if Alpha-17 was leading the 212th instead of Cody? Had Grievous been killed yet or had Order 66 inadvertently saved the cyborg?

“Kisar,” Cody called out. 

The Cathar Jedi turned towards him and didn’t bother to hide the tears and open expression of devastation on her face. He could only imagine what the Force felt like while so many Jedi were being killed at once. 

“I want you to try and contact some of your Jedi youngling and Padawan friends in the temple on Coruscant. If any of them have survived because of your warning, I want you to tell them to go to Keeja or Dex and wait for us there. We will go pick them up and bring them somewhere safe.”

“O-okay, Cody. But do you think those two restaurants are sufficient hiding places if they are run by known Jedi supporters?” Kisar grimaced at the thought of her friends being cornered by clones and shot in the civilian areas of Coruscant. 

“I can’t think of anywhere else. Let’s just first hope that there’s someone left alive to go there before we worry about what happens after, understand?” Cody placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort.

Kisar sighed heavily, “Yes, sir.”

She lifted up the comlink piece on her wrist and started entering the numbers of several of the Jedi she knew on Coruscant. 

Everyone watched as she was met with silence call after call.

***

It had been three hours with no responses.

Kisar had not stopped trying to contact everyone she could think of at the temple. Even as her voice started to shake and she struggled to gasp for breath every time she called, she did not stop.

She was a Jedi trained in the legendary Dragon Initiate Clan known for the tenacity of its members.

She was the former Commander and veteran of the 212th.

She was the Champion of the Cathar and the Mandalore Slayer.

She would not give up on them.

 _Someone_ had to have survived. 

As she kept trying, Kisar was aware of the sympathy directed towards her from everyone present. They had watched her attempt to contact her friends and other fellow Jedi with growing despair and regret. 

Cody approached her and wrapped his arm around her trembling shoulders. “Maybe it’s time to take a break?”

Kisar shook her head rapidly and growled, “ _No!_ I won’t abandon them even for a second!”

Helix hesitantly cut into their conversation, “We’ll listen while you take a break, kid. You don’t have to keep doing this by yourself.”

“No! _I_ have to be there for them. I failed them, Helix! I abandoned them already when I left with all of you and I won’t do it again!”

Cody sighed and tried to persuade her again, “You won’t do any good in this condition. You need to take a moment to collect yourself. Let me listen and wait while you rest.”

Kisar actually bared her teeth at him in response as she grew increasingly erratic. “I can’t! I-I left them, Cody! This is my fault! I left them….they’re being killed cause I’m not there! Most of them haven’t even seen battle and are like farm animals to be slaughtered! I-I-I ha-have to...I have to _help them_. I-”

Her rant was broken off by her own gasping breaths as she slipped further into a panic attack.

Cody jolted at the sight and pulled her closer to his own armored chest. He had not seen her have a panic attack in almost two years. When she was younger and still new to war, Kisar would have panic attacks but Waxer and Boil were always there for her when it happened. Now they were gone and Cody had to step up in their place. 

He had never felt so unprepared and inadequate in all of his short life.

He whispered in her pointed ear in the gentlest voice he could manage as she buried her humiliated sobs into the chest plates protecting his steadily beating heart, “Shhh, little one. Cody’s here. Your family is here for you. No matter what happens now, know that we’re proud of you. You’ve done _so much_ despite your age and no one blames you for this. We gave the Jedi and clones a chance today, even if it’s a small one. I’m sure your friends know that too all over the galaxy and on Coruscant.”

The furred teenager sniffled miserably and looked up at him with drooped ears. “You’re sure?”

He gave her a pointed look. “What was one of the first rules I taught you?”

He earned a weak chuckle for that question as she responded automatically, “Cody’s always right.”

They laid there in silence as she soaked in the heat radiating off of Cody as well as off of the nearby forms of Helix and Kaddak as everyone else witnessed the tender moment from around the ship’s main area.

A piercing beep put a stop to the quietness of the room as everyone directed their gaze to Kisar’s flashing comlink. Someone was trying to contact her.

Kisar jerked her body out of Cody’s grasp and shakily activated the holoprojector on her comlink to reveal the two forms of the Jedi Initiates Zatt and Ganodi.

The two younglings were obviously exhausted and injured but they still were standing without support as they addressed Kisar with obvious relief, “We got your message! We relayed it to some other groups and we’ll go to the two locations as you said. Coruscant is under serious lockdown right now and the skies are heavily patrolled by clone pilots. You’ll probably have to use another ship that could blend in with merchants or even smugglers. The Jedi are the only criminals that the Republic is concerned about now.”

“Understood, Zatt. How big of a ship should we be getting?” The unspoken question of how many Jedi were left alive made Cody grit his teeth from his position beside Kisar.

“It should be around two hundred younglings and Padawans. All of the Masters, Knights, and some older Padawans stayed behind to give us time to escape. Oh, and make sure that whatever ship you have has somewhere that could work as a nursery. Katooni said we’ll need a _lot_ of milk and diapers too.” 

Kisar was a little choked up as she nodded to show she understood. “Okay, guys. We’ll be on our way. May the Force be with you.”

Ganodi smiled and bowed out of respect to the elder Padawan. “May the Force be with you as well, Kisar.”

Once the call ended, Savvy immediately asked Kisar where they were going to get a suitable ship.

The Cathar Jedi furrowed her brows in thought before answering, “Set course for the Mid Rim planet of Takodana. I have an old friend there who has a soft spot for Jedi younglings without a home.”


	10. Chapter 10

Zoruk was unsurprisingly onboard with helping Kisar save the Jedi younglings and Padawans hiding on Coruscant. 

When Kisar and the rest of the crew landed on Takodana, she was automatically enveloped in a tight hug by the giant Cathar gladiator turned colony leader. Kisar let herself relax a moment at the sensation and hugged her former guardian back. She inhaled the familiar scent of the Cathar male and wrapped her tail around his ankle for support- something Zoruk reciprocated. Wrapping tails around each other was a common greeting and display of affection amongst Cathar that were especially close. 

Before she had the chance to verbally greet the infamous gladiator after pulling away from his embrace, another set of large arms wrapped around her body. She jerked in surprise before looking up into the excited eyes of Toruk. 

The young Cathar male was grinning down at her excitedly as he crowed, “So our champion has returned home, hmm?” 

Kisar reluctantly extracted herself from his embrace and appraised the Cathar around her that followed Zoruk’s lead. His colony of around forty thousand Cathar had formed a town of their own with a burgeoning economy. 

“Yes, but I’m sorry to say this visit will not be long. As I am sure you’ve received our warning and watched the news, you probably know why I am here.”

She spotted several ships in the nearby hangar and smiled with relief. There would be enough room for the surviving Jedi on Coruscant.

“I’m going to have to ask for another favor, Zoruk.” Kisar interrupted her former guardian in his grand speech about the amount of Cathar from all over the galaxy coming to his colony. 

“And what would that favor be,  _peedunkey?_ "  Zoruk grinned down at her expectantly.

“I think we’ll need to bring some diapers and milk among other things.”

***

Coruscant was wrecked from the inside out. The Seppies had done a number on it and Order 66 had further worsened the city-planet’s integrity. Even the usual chaos of the various levels of the core world were eerily silent. 

Less people were going about their days in fear of another attack. In their split up group of two teams, they often were the only ones on the streets they passed through. 

The hairs on the back of Cody’s neck stood up as they quietly and swiftly made their way to Dex’s Diner. He and Zoruk of all people were heading over to meet up with half of the surviving Jedi while Kisar and Foxtrot were meeting the other half at Keeja’s place. 

Cody would later admit that he had Kisar go to Keeja in his place in order to avoid the Corellian woman. He had dreaded seeing her again ever since he found out about the chip that had been in his brain for the majority of his life. Even after it was removed it served as a reminder of his own counterfeit manhood. She deserved so much more than a clone. 

With a nod to Zoruk beside him to show he was ready, Cody knocked on the more discreet back doors of Dex’s Diner to announce their arrival.

The deep, booming voice of Dex responded, “Who goes there?”

“It’s Commander Cody, Dex! I was Kenobi’s second-in-command!”

The door flung open to reveal the hulking form of Dex, the Besalisk owner of the famous Coruscant diner. He was also an old friend of General Kenobi’s. Cody didn’t know how Dex managed to keep the Jedi survivors hidden for so long. Anyone who knew Kenobi well enough would suspect Dex as someone helping the Jedi. 

If Skywalker truly was the new Sith Apprentice, this place would not be safe. 

Dex narrowed his eyes in suspicion before growling, “Prove to me that you’re not compromised like the others.”

“I spent my entire life preparing for and fighting a useless war orchestrated by a Sith Lord. I served with your old friend, Obi-wan Kenobi, but I am my own man now. I do not view Kenobi as a traitor, nor any of the Jedi. If I were compromised, I wouldn’t even be able to physically say that.” Cody grimly admitted with pursed lips. 

Zoruk shot him a concerned look at his side before turning back to Dex and nodding in greeting. “Kenobi’s former Padawan, Kisar, sent us here to retrieve the surviving Jedi. I am-”

“Zoruk,” Dex interrupted with a much friendlier tone as he uncrossed his arms and opened the door wide enough to let them inside the storage part of the diner, “I know who you are. I wasn't always a legitimate businessman.”

When they entered the storage area, Cody was faced with the shocking sight of at least a hundred Jedi younglings and Padawans packed into a relatively small freezer. Their faces were grim as they turned to him in near unison.

He frowned under his helmet when they flinched at the sight of him. Cody didn’t blame them but it still gave him an agonizing reminder of what his brothers did against their own will. 

He silently swore to himself to find a way to free them once the Jedi were taken to a safe location. Palpatine wouldn’t get away with completely wiping out the Jedi nor completely enslaving the clones. Cody would free as many of his brothers as he could even if he had to take back Kamino by his own kriffing self.

To put the Jedi at ease, the rogue Marshal Commander lifted his helmet from his head and gave a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I’m one of the good guys.”

“We know, it’s just an instinctual reaction after the Temple was invaded.” A Nautolan youngling pushed through the crowd to reveal himself as Zatt, a Jedi he had met before and someone Kisar reached out to to share her plan of getting the surviving Jedi to safety. His usual demeanor of young confidence was replaced by a stern frown and trembling limbs. “What’s the plan, sir?”

“We’re getting as far away from Coruscant as we possibly can.”

***

Kisar was expecting several Padawans and younglings that she knew to be alive, but she wasn’t expecting to be met with the stern face of Master Jocasta Nu when she entered Keeja’s shop. 

She felt Foxtrot freeze up behind her at the sight of the well-respected Jedi Master. Kisar didn’t know why or how the Chief Librarian of the Jedi Archives made it out but she supposed old Jedi were rarely seen for a reason. Master Nu had to be one tough Jedi to reach her advanced age.

“Master Nu!” Kisar exclaimed in shock.

A sharp shush from Keeja, who was hidden behind Nu and the door was Kisar’s response. The baker was wringing her hands as she gave a nervous smile to her old Jedi friend once Kisar and Foxtrot entered the back entrance. “It’s good to see you’re still alive, sweetheart.”

The Cathar Padawan and the squad of Commandos were ushered down the stairs by the Jedi Master and were faced with the sight of a hundred younglings and Padawans shoulder to shoulder in the farthest and most hidden corners of the basement of the bakery. 

“You’re Kisar!” One of the younglings shouted in excitement. She was a young Zabrak that looked as though she just exited her toddler years. Kisar felt a tight feeling in her chest at the thought of this little girl already going though so much at her age. 

“I am indeed, kiddo. You ready to blow this joint?”

***

Cody’s plan required both groups to move separately and to retain radio silence to avoid detection. If one group was compromised, the other’s ignorance of the fact could save their life if they continued to head towards the safety of the ships instead of trying to save them. It was a cruel but necessary plan for survival.

Kisar was used to such plans in her extensive experience working with Cody. She knew better than to question his plan. She also knew better than to hesitate while leading the surviving Jedi out of Coruscant. Even if something did happen to them or to the other group, whoever survived must keep going. 

One of the first lessons that Zoruk taught her was that heroes never survived.

That same lesson would hopefully save the Jedi Order.

With a quick flick of her hand, Kisar gestured for the Jedi behind her to follow her out into the back alleyways. 

Keeja had left on her own over an hour earlier to ensure her safety and to also make sure that the baker would not have been left behind as she was not fast enough to keep up with the Jedi on her own. 

When Kisar offered to help Keeja forge some documents to prove her innocence to any suspicious Jedi-hunters, the Corellian woman profusely denied her offer and said that she would rather die free with the Jedi and clones than live under Palpatine’s new government. 

The youngest Jedi, made up of a few infants and well over a dozen toddlers, were carried by the older Jedi younglings and Padawans and had their mouths stuffed with cloth to keep them from crying out and alerting their presence to any malevolent forces. The eery alleys that they journeyed through as silently as possible were strangely unoccupied as one of the most populated planets in the galaxy appeared lifeless. The Dark Side’s presence corrupted the very air they breathed as they rushed to safety away from Palpatine and his enslaved clones. 

A sudden sharp feeling was all the warning she received from the Force as Kisar sensed someone familiar, powerful, and extremely angry drawing near. She signalled to Foxtrot to be ready for an attack before doing the same to Master Nu and the Jedi. 

“KISAR!” The unmistakable voice of Anakin Skywalker roared before he landed in front of their group with his lightsaber brandished.

“Go! We’ll hold him off!” Kisar shouted to Master Nu before igniting her own lightsaber and readying herself for a fight alongside Foxtrot.

The elderly Jedi Master nodded gravely and led the young Jedi survivors away from the tense situation. They were close enough to the ship where Kisar would not have to hold back Skywalker for long to save the remaining Jedi. 

Which was good for Kisar and Foxtrot because they didn’t have the skills to take down a Sith of Skywalker’s caliber anyways. 

“Anakin! What have you done?!” Kisar hoarsely cried out to the sneering human male. 

“I have only done what needs to be done for the galaxy! You of all people should know how flawed the Jedi are!”

She shook her head sadly in response. “Flawed and deserving of death are two very different things, Anakin. Palpatine lied to you! He has been manipulating you this whole time and I’m sorry I didn’t notice until it was too late. We can still fix this!”

“I am not Anakin anymore. I am _Darth Vader._ And I _am_ fixing this.” The Sith she formerly knew as her friend, Anakin, growled and stepped forward with malicious intent. “You don’t have to die like the others, though. Palpatine promised that he would spare you, Ahsoka, and Obi-wan if you join us.”

“That’s not an option! Palpatine has killed the Jedi and fully enslaved the clones! Your 501st is not made up of men anymore, Anakin! They’re just puppets now!” Kisar also stepped forward, mirroring his own advance. “I’ll never join you!”

“So be it.” Vader hissed through clenched teeth as his yellow eyes blazed with fury. “Then you and Foxtrot will die with the rest of the traitors.”

“Not today they won’t!” Master Nu deftly landed in between Vader and the former members of the 212th. She had returned to save Kisar and Foxtrot.

Vader tilted his head mockingly as he chuckled, “Do you really think you can kill me, Librarian?”

Master Nu sniffed in bold disapproval. “That’s  _ Chief  _ Librarian to you, young Skywalker. I don’t need to kill you. I only need to temporarily remove you from service to your Dark Master.” 

The Sith shook his head in bemusement. “My Master was right. The Jedi’s arrogance is their downfall.”

“I’m counting on it.” Master Nu smiled with all of her teeth bared as she shifted her stance and crouched on the dirty ground of the alley in some sort of strange meditation position. Kisar watched in awe as the old Jedi Master began to glow. 

Darth Vader also was transfixed by the potent Force power coming from the previously frail looking Jedi Master. Kisar couldn’t tell if this was a part of whatever Master Nu was doing or from his own shock.

Master Nu turned back to Kisar and smiled with unusual warmth. “Do consider this to be my apology for not being there for you when you needed it most in the Temple, young Kisar. Hopefully such dreadful behavior will die off with this old Master.”

Before Kisar even had the chance to respond to that shocking statement from the normally unapologetic Jedi, Master Nu turned back to Vader and released a powerful light blast from her outstretched hands that landed squarely in the Sith’s chest, sending him backwards with great force.

Immediately after the light blast left her body, Nu’s body dropped to the ground in a lifeless heap of flowing robes. She used her entire life force to save Kisar and Foxtrot from Vader in an amazing combination of the techniques Force Push and Force Light.

That was something almost all Jedi would have no knowledge of how to perform but if anyone would know how to do it, it would be the Chief Librarian who was in control of the Archives that held the information of all known Force techniques. 

The darkness that previously permeated the air was incredibly gone and so was the man formerly known as Anakin Skywalker. Only a hole that cut through several buildings remained of the fallen Jedi. He was undoubtedly alive, but temporarily removed from his service just as Master Nu promised.

Kisar bowed her head in brief mourning of the redeemed Jedi Master before swiftly turning around and running towards the ship after being nudged in warning by a still shocked Gregor. She could only imagine how astonished and confused he and his brothers were after that showdown. 

Sidius had to know what they were doing by now. If they didn’t leave soon, they were as good as dead. 

***

“It’s about time.” Zoruk drawled as an out of breath Kisar and Foxtrot ran around him into the large ship. 

Helix was there to catch her once she collapsed from exhaustion. The medic frowned at her disheveled state but otherwise observed no injuries on the Jedi and helped her sit down on a nearby bench within the ship’s main cabin. 

“We almost left without you,  _ peedunkey _ .” Zoruk chastised as he sat down next to her on the bench. “When that Jedi Master left and said you were facing a powerful Sith with only a few clones to back you up, we feared for your life. If anyone else would have been left behind though, we would have just left.”

“Why didn’t you?” Kisar muttered in confusion as she thumped her head against the wall behind her.

“Because, despite the plan to leave no matter what, I own these ships and no one leaves or does anything with these ships without my say so. And while I am usually a man willing to do whatever it takes to survive and taught you to be the same way, I’ll admit that you bring out the selfishness in me sometimes, cub. Your Cody was also ready to shoot anyone who tried to take control of the ship and abandon you here. That Jedi Master went back for you because she stated that you were more important to the Jedi Order than she was before she left. That was what made the surviving Jedi settle and not try to fight us to fly away anymore.”

“I don’t believe her.”

“You should.” Cody interjected as he entered the cabin. “Because none of this would have happened without you.”

“Or you.” Kisar shot back with a tired smirk.

“Fair enough. But my point still stands. I came down to inform you that we’re going to be in hyperspace for a very long time. We managed to evade the authorities as no one expects an old junker like this to carry such important cargo, but we still have a long trip ahead before we reach safety.”

The Padawan narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Where is this safety?” 

Cody chuckled as he ruffled her mane teasingly. “A last parting gift from Master Windu, apparently. There’s a Jedi splinter group in the Unknown Regions. He gave the coordinates to young Katooni a few days after you left. He figured you’d be more likely to accept things from her than him.”

“The Unknown Regions?” Kisar gasped. It made sense, the Republic turned Empire did not have control over most of that part of space. It could be the safe place the Jedi so desperately needed.  “Let’s just hope it’s far enough from Coruscant to keep the Jedi Order alive.”

  
  



End file.
